Yu-Gi-Oh GX: Diffusion
by SuperNeos2
Summary: The journey to the top is filled with hurdle after hurdle with anything and everything looking to stop you. Follow the journey of Jaden Yuki and his friends as they enter Duel Academy to become the best of the best. It's time to get your game on with all new adventures that will show just how important family, friendship and love really is! AU! Season 1! Eventual JadenxAlexis!
1. First Draw! The Yuki's Jaden and Jason

Disclaimer: Don't own Yu-Gi-Oh GX

AN: **Hello! I wanna make something clear before we go further: 1) No, Supreme King Jaden is not abandoned or forgotten. I just wanted to try something new right now to get my creative juices flowing. 2) My long hiatus has been due to personal problems I'm almost done sorting out, so hopefully a hiatus won't happen again. 3) I've been writing my own novel during this time, so Fanfiction fell to the back burner.**

 **I don't wanna make promises I can't keep, so I won't say anything about a definitive updating schedule right now.**

 **Anyway, this is a new story. This is basically my own original Yu-Gi-Oh Series and I'm just using the GX characters and setting for it, and even then that has been altered as you'll see when we go on. This will be a more human tale that focuses on character development as much as the duels. There will be almost zero storylines from the anime and manga and anything taken will be shaped into something vastly different. It starts similar to the GX anime and Supreme King Jaden story, but the chances become very apparent as you go on.**

 **Jaden is still the MC and Jason and Asami are still in it. This won't get as dark as SKJ though I promise you, just your typical Yu-Gi-Oh dark tone for certain Arcs and characters like in the original subbed version of all shows.**

 **Here we go!**

 **Update 9/30/17: I redid Jaden's duel with Crowler and Jason's with Ichiro.**

Chapter 1 - First Draw! The Yukis Jaden and Jason

The day had arrived.

The Entrance Exam to the prestigious Duel Academy owned by Seto Kaiba, one of the best duelists to ever live. Those that enter this school have a solidified future in the pro league after completing their education, thus, they only accepted the best of the very best.

In an apartment building resting in the heart of Domino City rested two twin brothers who should be in the Kaiba Dome right now waiting to start the practical portion of their entrance exam. Alarm clocks were once an accessory for their room before an accidental alignment on a Saturday morning dissuaded any logic they felt in keeping one around. Now they relied on themselves and their parents to wake up and that was only if their parents were around to do so.

The eldest one by three minutes was currently sitting on the elevated bunk of their bunk-bed, balling his red bedsheets as he went over the idea ricocheting around his head. His large head of brown hair showed remains of spikes he had lazily pushed down when he woke up a minute ago, the orange spot in the middle dancing proudly over the ensemble of dark brown surrounding it. A grin shining through his wide-open mouth, he hopped down to the beige carpeted floor of their shared bedroom, not even considering using the ladder to get down.

He placed a palm over the desolated blue bedsheets of his younger sibling. Despite the loose sleeping position with a dangling arm and foot, his pure dark brown hair looked as if he had just combed it down that very second. He took special care and note of where his brother's bandaged face was, his head rolling over in the direction of the wall away from all obstacles, before he went through with his idea. He already made a mistake once before and wouldn't be able to handle repeating it.

"Jason, wake up!" He pulled, the now identified Jason had rolled around on his mattress so he was tied up in his own limbs, an outstretched hand failing to save his falling blanket. He glared at his laughing sibling. Untangling himself from the human pretzel form he had going, he shot him a middle finger. "I'm sorry, I had to!"

Jason shook his head before putting his hands up in his brother's line of sight. He started to speak in sign language, 'One of these days, Jaden, I'll get you back.'

Jaden smirked, "Not likely..."

'Any particular reason for that rude wakeup call?' Jason asked, ignoring Jaden's confident denouncing of the promise now made between them.

"It's an act of love, baby brother." Jaden melodramatically explained. He teared up before crossing his hands over his chest. "I have to show my love for you by acting like an asshole! It's the purest form of love amongst brothers there is!" He explained haphazardly, throwing his arms around his brother's shoulders in a hug.

Jason resisted the sickening itch to show his form of violent love with a smack to the head.

Jaden retracted the hug, "All seriousness, Jace, I was bored and figured since we're gonna be away from here after we pass our exams today, we'd make one last happy memory before we depart." Jason shrugged, picking out Jaden's smirk embezzled in his features before giving him a shrug in response.

'The exams are today?' His raised left eyebrow spelled out the question without Jaden having to decipher any movement of the fingers. His brother Jason was born without a voice, never making a sound no matter what the situation. It was hard for him to live with and the bullying certainly didn't make things better, but the family had wrestled with the reality of the younger Yuki's disability and adapted to it. Jaden had put more effort into learning sign language than he had any class he bothered sitting through.

Jason's facial injury, however, was something that they were still working to deal with.

Even a whopping five years later and they still hadn't set in stone a permanent strategy to coincide with the ramifications of his injury.

Jaden didn't remember the day clearly at all and Jason had suffered brain damage that tampered with his long-term memory and erased all files of Jason's previous year of life from his hard-drive of thoughts. Anything about it other than the basics they were told by their parents was lost on them like the shooter was to every investigator who dug into the event.

Jaden nodded, "Yep. That's why I woke you up. We need to be there in..." He glanced up to the Elemental Hero clock they had hanging in their room off to the side by their closet next to a plethora of Jason's artwork of Duel Monsters and anything else his creative mind had decided to conjure up over the years. Jaden's brown eyes widened while Jason's skin turned as white as the bandages wrapped around the right side of his face.

It was 11:10.

The exams had started ten minutes ago!

"Fuuuuuuuuck!" Jaden yelled, the echo and power of his scream shaking the trees outside and sending a family of birds flying away to get away from the source of disturbance. "Get ready!" Jaden screamed as he went to grab his discarded pair of jeans from two nights ago. He wrestled out of his red pajama pants to swap them while Jason went to fishing around his drawers.

"Goddamn it, goddamn it, goddamn it," Jaden chanted as he ran to grab a dark red jacket from the closet, his falling pants making him trip and collide head first with the door. Jaden recovered as if he hadn't taken a blow to the head and merely straightened his hair as a response to the fall. He made sure to grab Jason's light blue long sleeve shirt while in the closet. "Should've woke up, should've woke up," he repeated like a man possessed, throwing it over to Jason, who had stopped rummaging through the drawers for pants to head for the shelves next to their bed.

'I need to clean my wound though!' Jason hastily reminded as he grabbed a first aid kit that they had resting neatly on the shelf with Jaden's dueling trophies. Jason had a look of fear resting on his damaged face that spelled out the uneasiness and anxiety he had at the task that had to be done to keep him somewhat healthy. Even years later he still couldn't do this alone, getting a feeling akin to lions ripping him apart from the inside out every time he had to get this done.

Jaden stopped trying to buckle his pants to grab the first aid kit, pulling Jason off towards the bathroom that was one door down their narrow hallway. He jumped to bring some traction back to his falling pants. He sat Jason down on the feathered toilet seat, carefully untying his bandages, letting them fly down to the floor on Jason's bare feet and folding around his toes.

Jaden sighed as he took a cloth. This was gonna be a process for multitude reasons. Maybe he'd put an alarm clock back in the room.

...

"And we're here..." Jaden panted as he and Jason hauled ass into the entrance of the Kaiba Dome. Jaden had made record time in applying the disinfectant and fresh bandages on Jason, made much easier when he stopped fidgeting every time Jaden went near his face with the cloth. Jaden couldn't get mad at him though. He understood fully why Jason moved away whenever he came close with the cloth. It had to no doubt burn like hell on such a sensitive body part on top of an irritating injury.

Once that was done, they had changed into their jacket and sweater before swapping into dark blue jeans each and took off like a newly tuned sports car towards the Kaiba Dome.

Registrations had ended literally the moment after they had arrived, so they were beyond relieved that they had made it by the skin of their teeth. The man up front had let them know that their names would be called when it was their turn to duel. After taking the written exam a few days ago, where Jaden had barely scrubbed by towards the bottom of the scores while Jason landed in the middle, they were told that today would be the day to take their practical to see if they got into Duel Academy.

Yet, Jaden and Jason managed to sleep in despite the importance of the day.

"Next time, you're the one giving the wakeup call." Jaden told Jason, getting a shake of the head as a response. Jason made sure that he made it clear with his hand gestures that he was gonna sleep in the next time something came up between them just so Jaden would learn from this experience. Jaden grinned. Then they were doomed to repeat today's catastrophic morning.

They took a spot in the upper catwalk where they could oversee the duels going on right now. Nothing so far peeked their interest enough to give continued speculation. That didn't mean they themselves weren't interesting enough for others to keep watch over, more specifically Jason and his bandaged face.

The feeling of eyes on him caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand up, alerting him of the stares being shot at him. He emotionally retracted into a ball, lowering his gaze to the ground while Jaden turned away from Jason to see what caused him to look down.

Once he caught the stares being directed towards Jason, he glared and scanned around the area, making sure he gave ample time to each person with the glare to get them to stop. He sighed. Hopefully he didn't have to keep doing this all year when they got in. It was gonna get old very quickly.

He clasped a hand on Jason's shoulder, shooting his brother a smile to calm him down before redirecting his attention back to the many duel arenas below them. Desperately looking for something to throw away the tension and awkwardness of the moment, he picked out a random duel happening:

It was a boy around their age with black hair with two monsters on the field. From what Jaden saw, it was a Beta the Magnet Warrior and an Alpha the Magnet Warrior. He had no facedowns and 1000 life points.

The proctor had 3300 life points and four cards of the Destiny Board active.

"Well, applicant, how do you plan to end this duel?" The proctor asked. "Next turn my Destiny Board will fill in the last letter and it'll all be over."

"Yes, it is over," the boy agreed as he drew. He smirked, "For you. I summon Gamma the Magnet Warrior and then I'll tribute all three to summon Valkyrion the Magna Warrior!"

The pink magnet warrior joined with the other two before they merged together to become one. The new monster was indeed a mix and match version of the original three monsters. It carried Alpha's sword, a sleeker version of Beta's head and Gamma's wings, while the other pieces made a new sliver body. (ATK: 3500/DEF: 3850)

"Now I'll attack you directly!"

Valkyrion charged and slammed the helm of his blade into the proctor's duel disk.

Bastion: 1000 (Winner)

Proctor: 0

"Clever move, applicant," the proctor praised with a smile. "Welcome to the academy."

The boy bowed in respect. "Thank you."

Jaden and Jason nodded in approval of this duelist as the holograms disappeared off the field. "Sweetness! I gotta duel that guy!" Jaden exclaimed loudly and excitedly, causing many bystanders to turn and stare at him. Jason shook his head towards them, albeit a little shyly, making them all shrug before they turned away.

"That guy is pretty good don't you think, Chazz?" Jason and Jaden turned their attention to a group of three boys in blue coats sitting just a little bit away from them. They guessed they were already enrolled in the academy since they had their blazers.

"Guess the rumor about him being some kind of whiz kid was true, huh Chazz huh? the second boy spoke to a dark-haired boy that was leaning back in his chair with his arms stretched out behind his head.

"I expected as much from the number one on the written test," the one called Chazz rolled his shoulders. "It still doesn't mean he's anywhere near my level of skill, but he could make for some fun soon." He finished with a smirk, leering downwards at Bastion as he exited the arena.

Jaden and Jason knew that this one was gonna be one to watch out for. Jaden didn't trust the tone that was surfacing within Chazz's apparently respectful words. In a way, it made him look like a bigger jerk than if he had just acted like a jerk outright.

"That guy really tore it up down there, right Jason?" Jaden asked his twin, who gave a nod of the head in agreement.

"That's Bastion Misawa," the Yuki twins almost jumped at the new voice. Next to them was a short boy with spiked blue hair and glasses that was staring at the dueling field Bastion departed from. "It's said that he got the highest exam score out of all us applicants."

Jaden whistled in amazement while Jason's eye widened. "Wow, I just barely passed while my brother here did average."

"Yeah I barely made it too. My name's Syrus Truesdale by the way, nice to meet you two." Jaden saw him stare at Jason's bandages in curiosity, a fire boiling in his stomach as he anticipated the questions they've heard time and time again.

Jaden was surprised when Syrus didn't question Jason's bandages or try to take them off. Well, now that Jaden observed him instead of just stare, he immediately saw the flaw in his logic. Syrus' words barely got out of his mouth with the timid tone and low voice he used. He didn't seem like that kind of guy who bullied, but who got bullied instead. He was barely half Jason's height as well. Jaden had to learn to stop seeing every person as a threat to him and his brother. His parents always told him that not everyone was a threat or out to get them...

Or they did when they bothered to show up.

"I have this thing when I get test anxiety," Syrus continued, his head lowered in what Jaden thought to be shame. "I don't know how I won my match..."

"So, you're in," Jaden clapped Syrus on the back, the sudden motion causing the short blue-haired boy to tumble forward and almost fall over the railing. "Congrats. Me and my brother are dueling next and we'll be joining you as soon as we win our duels." Jaden said with confidence in his and his brother's skills, his excitement for his upcoming duel increasing tenfold.

Jason just gave a small smile at Jaden's confidence.

Syrus turned to Jason, "Is he always this confident?" Jason just nodded, sighing heavily as best he could as he went through whatever he could come up with when it came to Jaden's obsession in his skills. He's never seen Jaden falter to anyone in a duel, not even ones who should be a lot better than him.

Syrus was confused at the lack of communication from the other Yuki, "I know we don't know each other, but I'm not gonna scream at you if you speak back."

Jaden's grin dropped as he stared at Jason. Expecting to have to come to his aid, he bit back a gasp of surprise when Jason just shook his head and grabbed the golden notepad he had chained to his side with a silver chain. He grabbed his black ball point pen and wrote down a few simple words, carefully tearing the page out to give to Syrus, who took it with a slow movement of the hand.

'I can't talk.'

Syrus stared at the page with a wide-eyed expression, "Huh!? You can't!?" Syrus seemed to notice how loud he was from Jaden's annoyed expression and Jason covering his only visible ear, changing his tone. "Sorry. You can't?"

Jaden answered, "No. He can't. He was born mute." He revealed after seeing Jason shrug in passiveness over the decision of whether to reveal to Syrus his secret. He guessed it didn't matter. Once they got in, he would figure it out after going days without hearing Jason talk.

Syrus nodded slowly, shock and disbelief at what he just heard, "Oh... That sucks..." He didn't know what to say.

Jason shrugged again. He patted Syrus' shoulder, aiming to reduce some of the uneasy feelings Syrus was having at the revelation. Syrus gave a smile at the nice gesture.

Jaden turned to see Bastion taking a seat in a row of seats just below them, mentally thanking him for giving him a second out of an awkward situation. "Hey Bastion! Sweet duel done there!"

"Thank you," Bastion replied politely.

"By the look of things, you might be the third best duelist here after me and my brother." Jaden gestured to him and his mute brother, who was listening to what Syrus was telling him about his duel with his proctor when he got curious about his duel he apparently barely won. Bastion raised his eyebrows, about to ask Jaden what he meant before a voice over the loudspeaker called out.

"Will Jaden Yuki please report to Dueling Field 4. Jaden Yuki to Field 4."

"Well that's my cue," Jaden placed his deck into his duel disk. He turned to Syrus, "Can you keep my brother company while I'm kicking butt?" Syrus nodded his head. "Thanks." Jaden turned to his brother. "I'm gonna make this quick so don't miss me too much. Plus, you get to hang out with someone who's not me for the first time in... Three?"

Jason held up four fingers.

"Four years." Jaden smirked at Jason's face before he took off to the dueling field that he was assigned.

Bastion watched him go, "Let's see if he's as good as he says..."

...

At the bottom of the arena sat a bunch of Duel Academy's upper chairmen and teachers. "Looks like we've got a pretty good crop this year." One of them said.

"Yes, indeed." Another teacher agreed.

"Possibly the best we've seen in years..."

Also, right next to them, another teacher sat there silent not paying attention to the other teachers' talk. He's male, but could easily be mistaken as a woman if you didn't know who he was due to all the makeup that he wore for some bizarre reason. He wore a blue blazer similar to Chazz but had some gold shoulder plates and trimmings along with a ruffled pink collar. He also had his blonde hair in a ponytail. This was Dr. Vellian Crowler, headmaster of the Obelisk Blue Boys Dorm and an elitist snob. He was about to get up and leave when he saw someone coming.

"I'm sorry to interrupt." A man in a black business suit appeared stopping Crowler from leaving, much to his chagrin. "But two last applicants have arrived to take their exam, Mr. Crowler."

"Excuse me? Did you just call me, 'mister'?" Crowler scowled.

"I'm sorry. I'm new here Miss…"

"I have a PHD in dueling to earn the title 'Doctor' thank you!" Crowler snapped a bit with some pride in his voice at his PHD. He then looked away. "Now tell the truants that they'll have to come back next year." The other teachers looked at him like he lost his mind, not that he really had it to begin with if one really knew Crowler for a while... Or two minutes.

"Come on, Dr. Crowler, we have time for two more."

"Yes, let's give these duelists their shots."

"They were just a bit late, that's all."

"They said it was because of a family emergency."

"How can we turn them away because of that?"

"LATE IS RUDE! EXCUSES REGARDLESS!" Crowler finally snapped. He slammed his hands down, freaking out the other people around him immensely. "I HAVE NO TIME FOR TARDY SLACKERS!" Just then his cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and answered it "WHAT!?"

"It's Sheppard."

"Oh, Chancellor Sheppard." Crowler said, suddenly changing his angry tone to a pleasant one, making everyone watching him sweatdrop. "Nice of you to call."

"Just making sure everything is going smoothly, Crowler." Chancellor Sheppard said. "This is the first time that you're running things and I just want to make sure you're holding up well, unlike what happened the year when you became head of Obelisk Blue." That made Crowler bug out a bit, his eyes widening. "How many students did we have to reinstate after that?" Crowler laughed uneasily, "Anyway, just keep things in order and make sure the kids are treated well."

"Yes, of course, sir." Crowler said as he hung up scowling. 'Furry–chinned windbag; doesn't he realize that there are enough talentless flunkies at this Academy? But he's the boss, and if he wants to give these slackers a duel… fine...'

He then got up from his seat. "Please fetch me our new Professor - Ichiro Koga."

"He's finishing up his duel with a student now. I'll send him to meet you now." One of the teachers said, grabbing some paperwork before going off towards wherever the professor was.

"Thank you. I would like a newcomer to our board of directors to get as many chances to show what he's capable of to the students around here before classes start." Crowler explained, getting nods of understanding in return. He turned around, "Pardon me, gentlemen and ladies, I'll be right back."

"There's two boys, right?" One of the teachers asked. She was a woman in her mid-20s with long wavy pink hair that stopped just at her hips. She had striking brown eyes and a loose expression that made her look like she didn't care about what was around her. She bore a white jacket with a dark blue skirt the same color as the Obelisk blazers. She could've been a model with her beauty, but she was here. Crowler gave a nod, "Then who will be the second proctor?"

Crowler just huffed and walked away. "Leave that to me, Ms. Elric." He pulled out a deck from inside his blazer, grinning sinisterly.

...

Jaden rode up in a platform to his dueling arena, seeing a blond-haired man already standing on the other side waiting for him with a modified duel disk on his vest and another man wearing a black suit with dark blue hair pulled into a low ponytail. Jaden watched the man with the duel vest tell the man with the black suit something before he left down the platform on the other side. Jaden was a bit weirded out at the appearance of his opponent, but didn't allow it to show. He was a little politer than that.

Unless Jason was involved.

Or he forgot to be polite.

It was a new excuse every hour.

"Alright! Test time!"

"Is your brother really as good as he says?" Syrus asked Jason back up in the stands, who started writing in his notepad when Syrus asked him. Jason nodded his head before he showed Syrus what he had written on the notepad, causing the boy's eyes to widen behind his glasses.

"He's better."

Back at the dueling arena, Jaden and Crowler were turning their duel disks on. "So, son, what's your name?"

"Jaden. Jaden Yuki."

"Well 'Jaden Yuki', I'm Doctor Vellian Crowler, head of the Obelisks Boys Dorm and the Department Chair of Techniques here at Duel Academy."

"Wow, a department chair? From the way you were dressed I thought you were some kind of academy mascot." Jaden rubbed his head sheepishly, causing Crowler to go red with anger and his brother to shake his head at his comment. He wasn't wrong although Jaden could be a little more restrained from time to time.

"Now that he mentions it..." The boy wearing glasses next to Chazz said as he took in Jaden's comment on the Doctor.

"This guy's got some lip, huh Chazz?" The other said.

Chazz looked on with a smirk, "I think I'm gonna enjoy watching Crowler mop the floor with our mouthy little friend down there. I only wish he treated all the other second rate duelists that applied to this school the same way. Saves me the trouble of having to clean up the mess myself."

"Duel Vest On!" Crowler snapped activating it and drew his five cards. Jaden was amazed by the machinery as was his brother.

"Hey, that's pretty sweet, teach. How do I get one of those stunning cool duel blazers?" Jaden asked excitedly.

"Oh, a lot of hard work and extremely high marks." Crowler answered. 'Of course, you have to be accepted first. Which I will make sure you don't.'

"Extremely high marks?" Jaden asked disappointingly before he shrugged it away. "Oh well, guess I won't be getting that." His carefree attitude and dismissal over the duel blazer reinforced Crowler's thought of him being a slacker and a smart mouth. "But enough chit-chat, teach! Let's duel!"

Up in the stands were three people watching the duel that was about to take place. All three were Obelisks from the color of their outfits. There was one guy and two girls. The one guy had dark blue hair and grey colored eyes and wore the white variation of the boy's blazer while the girls wore the female version. A blue and white blazer with a blue-mini skirt and blue heels. One had long golden blonde hair and brown eyes while the other girl had mid-back length pink hair in a side bang and striking emerald green eyes. The blonde girl also had blue fingerless dueling gloves.

"This kid really must've pissed Crowler off if he's the one dueling him." The pink-haired girl said.

"Or maybe he's really good," the blonde-haired girl mumbled as she started to observe the dueling field. "What do you think, Zane?"

"I think Asami might be right, Alexis." Zane kept his arms folded at his chest. "He must've made Crowler mad if he's wasting his time dueling a runt like him."

"Guess we'll find out..." Alexis trailed off as the duel officially started.

Crowler: 4000

Jaden: 4000

"I'll draw first!" Jaden said as he picked up his sixth card. He nodded, "Okay, first I'll summon Elemental Hero Sparkman in attack mode!"

Appearing on Jaden's side of the field was a strange looking human dressed in yellow and blue garb with a curved blue helmet. Bolts of lightning escaped his hands as he prepared for a fight. (ATK: 1600/DEF: 1400)

"And with two facedowns, I'll call it quits for now." Jaden concluded, letting Crowler take his turn.

"Your brother is a Hero duelist?" Bastion asked as he turned around to look at Jason. Jason nodded his head at Bastion. "That's a very difficult deck to use properly due to needing very specific monsters for its more powerful cohorts." Jason just gave a knowing smile. These folks were in for a surprise if they thought that, especially when it was his turn.

Dr. Crowler dismissively brushed off Jaden's move as he drew his card. He then took a look at his hand. 'After all, since I'm using my own personal deck rather than those puny test ones, I'll be calling all the shots. I'll fail that miserable little brat and send him home in no time flat.' He grinned as he saw the cards in his hand.

"I begin by playing the Field Spell Geartown!" Crowler declared as he slipped a card into the tray. Once he did, he and Jaden were transported to a large bustling little town with buildings made of gears. "Now any Ancient Gear monsters of mine can be summoned out with one less sacrifice." He grabbed a second card, "So feast your eyes on the Ancient Gear Beast!"

A large canine composed of metal howled as he landed by Crowler's side, growling over at Jaden's Sparkman. (ATK: 2000/DEF: 2000)

"Attack his would-be hero with Ancient Pounce!" Crowler ordered, taking joy in watching his monster jump on Jaden's creature and slice it to bits.

Jaden: 3600

Crowler: 4000

"That's not a test deck..." The female teacher from before dryly commented as she watched with her fellow staff.

"Wanna stop him?"

She shook her head, "No. Leave it be. They already started."

"Anyone else getting the feeling here that something is going on here?" Syrus asked as he watched the turnabout down below.

"Probably..." Bastion shrugged, "I think it's safe to say that we're all getting a glimpse into what Dr. Crowler is truly capable of."

Jason stared in surprise at Jaden taking the first blow in the duel.

"Crowler must be using his own deck in this duel." Torimaki, the boy with glasses and one of the boys with Chazz, said. "Geartown and Ancient Gear Beast? It has to he his cards!"

"Then this duel is over," Raizou, the other boy, said. "No one can beat the deck of an expert like Dr. Crowler."

Chazz grinned at this. "I think I'm going to enjoy Crowler wipe the floor with that kid. A shame that this isn't common. This way, we get to really have only the best in this school."

"What an elitist snob," Alexis said, "Bullying some kid with his very best cards."

"You're too soft, Alexis," Zane spoke up. "I just hope we get to see that legendary rare card Crowler had stashed in that deck of his."

"We might if that guy lasts long enough for Crowler to bring it out." Asami shrugged.

Jaden smirked, "Thanks for that, teach." Crowler blinked in confusion, "For destroying my Sparkman, I get to activate my facedown card Hero Signal!"

A spotlight shined above Geartown, plastering a giant black 'H' on the darkened sky.

"Now I get any Elemental Hero that is Level 4 or below!" He pulled out his deck to fan through it. "And I'll choose Elemental Hero Avian!"

A hero wearing a green hero costume outfitted in feathers landed by Jaden, wings flapping behind him. (ATK: 1000/DEF: 1000)

Crowler huffed, "You just swapped out one weakling for one that's even weaker." He criticized. Glancing over his hand one more time, he set one card facedown to end his turn. He might've thought it over very briefly, but he was proud that he had decided to bust out his real deck for this. This kid and his smart mouth would make Duel Academy look like a joke. He felt extra happy he told Professor Ichiro to follow his lead for whoever number two was.

Jaden glared at the insult Crowler gave his monsters. He drew his next card to bring his total to a four. "I activate my Reinforcement of the Army spell card to take any Warrior monster that's Level 4 or lower and add it to my hand." Like before, he went through his deck to find what he wanted before taking it. "Now to show the strength of the Elemental Heroes!"

He held up a well-known spell card. "Polymerization allows me to fuse the Burstinatrix in my hand with the Avian on my field to make a new more powerful monster!"

From a column of red flames, a gray-skinned woman in a red body-suit appeared and landed on the field next to Avian. They didn't stay too long before they jumped up and disappeared in a purple swirl. A new monster appeared that had some of the same looks as Avian and Burstinatrix. It had one of Avian's wings along with a few of Burstinatrix's colors. The only thing that neither monster had was the dragon-like hand on the monster's left arm. He landed with an authoritative pose. (ATK: 2100/DEF: 1200)

"Meet my favorite monster - Elemental Hero Flame Wingman!" Jaden introduced. "Now show these fine people your power! Attack with Flame Shoot!"

Wingman nodded before holding up his dragon arm. He gathered up a large ball of flames before he shot it out towards the Beast in front of him, taking him away in a large sphere of flames.

Jaden: 3600

Crowler: 3900

Crowler fumed, "How dare you!"

"If you're mad about that, you're gonna hate this next part..." Jaden grinned, "When Wingman destroys a monster, you take damage equal to the monster's attack points!"

The whole stadium gasped as Wingman flew and landed by a worried Crowler. He held his arm out and engulfed the doctor in a ball of fire. The teacher ran in circles to put out the ensuing specs of fire that remained on his clothes.

Jaden: 3600

Crowler: 1900

"And I'll end with one facedown." Jaden concluded, leaving him one card in his hand with two facedowns.

Syrus watched the last move with a look of amazement. "Jaden's holding his own with one of the teachers!" He sounded like Jaden had just walked on water on his hands whilst they were broken. Jason found amusement in the reactions Jaden was garnering. This was average for the elder twin.

Bastion watched with an intrigued look, 'Now he has to win. I need some competition.'

Up in the stands, Chazz was shocked, 'What!? That's Crowler's real deck and this wannabe is winning against it!?' He calmed down to throw a stoic face on. 'Maybe...' He smirked. Yeah, he could work with that. Maybe it wasn't so bad after all that this kid was doing so well.

"Wow..." Alexis muttered in fascination at the move Jaden had made.

"It'd really suck if he lost now," Asami said. "He'd make a fun opponent."

Zane remained silent.

Crowler growled as he drew his next card. He couldn't believe this slacker had just taken over half of his points with one attack. It made him feel ashamed of himself. He glanced over his four-card hand, nodding to himself.

"Well, Mr. Yuki, it seems like it's time for me to show you just how outclassed you are compared to this school!" He held up a single card. "I play Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy my Geartown!"

"Rewind and press the 'Explain' button..." Jaden raised an eyebrow, "You're destroying your own card instead of mine? What gives?"

Crowler smirked, "When my precious Geartown is removed from the field, I can summon any Ancient Gear monster I want from my deck!" He explained with a confident look of superiority. The city crumbled around them as Crowler explained this, transporting them back to the exam arena. The ground didn't stop shaking though as in the place of the city stood a metal dragon with a threatening roar taking its rightful place next to Crowler. (ATK: 3000. DEF: 3000)

'No Golem?' The teachers wondered. Although now that they thought on it, it made sense why he didn't.

"That's it, that's his legendary card!" Alexis gasped.

"Oh my..." Asami muttered in awe.

"Now it looks like we're about to find out what makes it so legendary." Zane said as he observed the duel.

"Now, now, I hope you're not too scared of my legendary Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Dragon." Crowler said sarcastically towards Jaden.

Jaden, however, looked as though he was having the time of his life. Jason had to wonder if maybe he accidentally took some of his painkillers from the way he looked all wide-eyed excited. "No way, I've always wanted to take one on."

This shocked many people again, including Syrus. "Either Jaden's really brave or he's nuts!"

Jason could safely say it all depended on the situation. Here, he was nuts.

Bastion just watched.

"Looks like Crowler's top card lives up to the hype." Chazz nodded in approval. "Now all we gotta do is wait and see if Slacker down there has what it takes to win."

"He's staring down that legendary rare monster like he doesn't have a care in the world," Zane said incredulously. "I guess youth and inexperience have its benefits after all."

"Give it a rest, Zane," Alexis said. "At least the kid's showing some backbone."

"That's a nice way of putting it, Lex." Asami leaned forward in anticipation of what was gonna happen next.

Dr. Crowler cackled as he ordered, "Dragon attack, Ancient Gear Roar!" His Ancient Gear Dragon's red eye glowed slightly before opening its mouth and yelling with such force it shattered Jaden's Wingman to pieces. The ensuing gust of wind nearly knocked Jaden on his back.

Jaden: 2700

Crowler: 1900

"Oh man, Jaden's Wingman didn't stand a chance!" Syrus complained as he watched the duel. "Its attack points were way too low." His shoulders then slumped. "This doesn't look good." Jason clasped a hand on Syrus' slumped shoulder, the shorter blue haired boy glancing up at him. Jason just smiled.

Crowler took pleasure in watching Jaden stumble over his attack. "Don't feel bad, this is the top Dueling school in the country. Some people just aren't cut out for it."

Jaden smirked before expanding it into a grin, "Holy smoke! If I didn't really wanna come to this school before, I do now! You're an awesome duelist, teach!" He bounced up and down in his spot. Crowler growled at the lack of deflation in Jaden's enthusiasm.

"Well I am an excellent teacher, thank you very much..." Crowler said, mostly to himself. He glanced at his three-card hand. "I'll place one card facedown to end my turn." He now had two facedowns with his Dragon standing tall above them.

Jaden drew to give himself a hand of two, "I reveal my facedown card Call of the Haunted to bring back my Sparkman to the field!" The lightning Hero returned to the field with a twirl. (ATK: 1600/DEF: 1400) "And now with the spell Fusion Recovery I can add a Polymerization and a monster I used for a Fusion back to my hand!" He took his spell and Avian.

"I fail to see how bringing back your feathered friend is gonna help you."

"Yeah, you're right..." Jaden agreed, much to the surprise of the people around him. "But what I really wanted was the Polymerization card back to do this!" He held it out with another monster card that had the image of a disgusting blue swamp monster looking thing. "I fuse Sparkman with King of the Swamp to make something else!"

"Clever calculation!" Bastion leaned over in fascination. "King of the Swamp is a perfect addition to any Hero deck!"

"How so?" Syrus asked.

"King of the Swamp has two effects. The first allows you to add a Polymerization to your hand after discarding it to the graveyard. The second allows it to substitute for any Fusion Material monster. Now Jaden can make any Fusion he wants that involves Sparkman." Bastion explained.

Jason took out his notepad to scribble down a few words before gently taking the paper out to hold out for Syrus and Bastion to see:

'I was the one who told him to add that card to his deck after an agreement between us.' It read. Jason was happy that Jaden had listened. This way, he wouldn't get boxed into a corner if he was missing either a specific monster or the Polymerization card itself.

"An agreement?" Syrus was the one who asked. Jason made no gesture to explain, instead focusing on the duel down below.

Back at the duel, Jaden watched as the swamp monster appeared next to his Sparkman. "Now fuse together to make the Elemental Hero Thunder Giant!"

The King of the Swamp jumped on Sparkman, merging his body with his as Sparkman allowed him to stick to him. Sparkman was enveloped with in a blue light before out of the light came a new monster. A large yellow-armored creature replaced the Sparkman on the field. It had a blue center that crackled with electricity. (ATK: 2400/DEF: 1600)

"Your monster isn't strong enough to defeat my Dragon!" Crowler laughed at the miscalculation in the Slacker's strategy. The entire stadium was staring at Jaden in a combination of bewilderment and confusion. Even Jason was staring in curiosity of Jaden's move.

"Before I hear anything else," Jaden showed another card in his hand. "I play Elemental Sword! Now a monster equipped with this gains 800 points when it battles a monster with a different Attribute to it." He explained.

The whole stadium was in shock at his play. Crowler growled as a black handle appeared in Thunder Giant's hand. (ATK: 2400-3200)

"Attack Gadjiltron Dragon with Voltic Thunder!" The new Hero charged forward to land in front of the Dragon. The light around him spread out to wrap around the Dragon, destroying it easily.

Jaden: 2700

Crowler: 1700

"That was one of my best cards! How dare you!" Crowler fumed.

Jaden just laughed sheepishly, "I'll end my turn."

Crowler drew his next card. "I activate my facedown Ancient Gear Reborn!" A trap flipped open to show a field of discarded gears with a robotic hand shooting up from the dirt. "When I have no monsters on my field, I can special summon any Ancient Gear monster from my graveyard back to my field."

"Wow!" Asami gasped. "That's a very handy card!"

"I use it to bring my Dragon back to the field!" The large dragon made a triumphant return. (ATK: 3000/DEF: 3000) "And since he was brought back with Ancient Gear Reborn, he gains 200 more points!" (ATK: 3000-3200)

"Now I'll add some extra power by playing the spell card Ancient Gear Castle!" He paused as a large castle made of stone and metal chains rose behind him, "It gives all of my Ancient Gear creatures an extra 300 attack points!" (ATK: 3200-3500)

Jaden oohed.

"That's not good for Jaden," Syrus whined. Even Jason was staring in worry for his brother.

"Next I'll summon the Ancient Gear Soldier in attack mode!" He grinned maliciously as an ancient metallic monster with a machine gun arm appeared next to the Dragon. (ATK: 1300-1600/DEF: 1300)

"Now I'll attack your Thunder Giant with my Ancient Gear Roar!" The dragon exacted his revenge on the big and bulky Hero with a powerful screech. Even the boost from the Elemental Sword couldn't help. (ATK: 2400-3200)

Jaden: 2400

Crowler: 1500

"Now my Soldier hits you directly!" The Ancient Gear Soldier fired a hail of bullets off towards Jaden, who rose his arms to defend himself.

Jaden: 800

Crowler: 1500

Jason stared in surprise. He didn't think Jaden would fall that far behind.

Crowler stared in satisfaction at his work. "Go ahead and make your final move, Slacker."

Jaden just grinned. "Oh, I will! And I'll win, I guarantee you that!" He drew his card, staring at it in joy. "Firstly, I'll activate my Miracle Fusion spell card!" He held it out for Crowler to see. "Now I'll fuse my King of the Swamp with the Burstinatrix in my graveyard to Fusion Summon something new! The Elemental Hero Rampart Blaster!"

The fire themed heroine and the nasty Swamp monster appeared before they repeated the earlier act with Sparkman. Out from the light came a new fusion giant that looked feminine and wore a red helmet, carried a red shield in her left arm and her right arm was a missile launcher. (ATK: 2000/DEF: 2500)

"Oh, okay, another amateurish mistake, but this is good, this is good, now would anyone like to tell me what our little friend here-" Crowler began to taunt, but before he could go any further Jaden interrupted him yet again.

"Don't get a big head yet, teach!" Jaden interrupted. "Because now I'm about to show you something cool!" He pointed forward. "Now Rampart Blaster, attack his Dragon!"

"Okay, he's nuts..." Asami sighed.

"Is he trying to go out in style?" Alexis asked.

"What's he doing!?" Syrus screamed.

Jason stared down at Jaden's facedown, smiling to himself.

"I suppose I should commend you for lasting as long as you did against me." Crowler shook his head with a cocky smirk. "But this isn't the way to l-"

"I activate my facedown card Battle Fusion!" Jaden interrupted as his card flipped open to reveal a spell card showing a Chthonian Soldier holding a lightning infused sword. "Now when a Fusion monster battles another monster, it gains ATK points equal to the monster it's attacking."

Crowler paled as he realized what was about to happen, "Wait! Time out!"

"Go!" Jaden shouted as Rampart Blaster's power increased. (ATK: 2000-5500) "Rampart Barrage!" The Blaster fired half a dozen missiles over at Gadjiltron Dragon, who couldn't stand up to the onslaught of attacks from the Fusion monster ahead of him, collapsing and bowling up from the hits.

Jaden: 800 (Winner)

Crowler: 0

"And that's game!" Jaden announced as he pointed his index and middle fingers at Crowler in a sort of salute. "So, I guess I passed the test, huh teach?"

As the holograms faded, a lot of people were stunned to see that Jaden actually beat the teacher in a duel, while the said teacher used his own deck. Despite putting up a good fight, Crowler was aghast at this whole thing. He had been beaten by a kid who was late and who was nothing but a mere amateur!

"Impossible," He seethed, "There's no way this delinquent could've beat me!"

Up in the stands, Chazz was staring down at Jaden with a perplexed expression, 'Okay, now I got to definitely face him! He might've won now with luck, but I'll show him that luck can only get you so far!'

Asami was flabbergasted, a giant excited grin blowing up on her face. "Yep, he's on my list."

Alexis was also smiling at Jaden's victory. "This kid's definitely got a future here."

Syrus was cheering for Jaden himself, "Yay! Jaden won!"

'Nice,' Bastion mused as he watched Jaden do a victory dance. 'I could use some competition.'

Jason watched his brother proudly, pride welling up in his gut for his older brother. Now he hoped he made Jaden feel the same when it was his turn.

"Jason Yuki to Field 2. Jason Yuki report to Field 2."

Jason turned and started jogging down the steps to head for his destination.

...

"Way to play, Jay!" Syrus cheered as Jaden arrived back to the spot where he had left his brother.

"Very impressive," Bastion nodded his head in praise. "Not only did you hold your own with one of the teachers, you managed to beat him as well."

Jaden kept his grin from the duel on his face, "Oh, it was nothing." He noticed the absence of Jason. "Where'd my brother go?"

"Didn't you hear the announcement?" Syrus asked. "It's time for him to duel."

"And with your stunning victory over Crowler, everyone is excited to see how he fares." True to Bastion's word, the crowd was leaning in anticipation to where Jason was standing waiting for his dueling opponent, not looking up to the crowd as he focused on the empty space where his opponent will be when he arrives.

Jaden snickered, "Well they'll be glad to know that he's as good as me. Sure, I'm just a little bit better, but he's no pushover." Jason didn't spare Jaden a glance after hearing that, just shaking his head. He wasn't wrong though.

"The brother of the guy who beat Crowler," Zane noted as Jason stood in the arena, swaying in his spot as he scratched at the white tape circling around the right side of his face.

"Let's see if he's as good as his brother," Asami leaned forward with anticipation. Alexis was replaying Jaden's final move against Crowler in her head, the duelist in her itching irritatingly to face him as soon as she could.

"Two slackers?" Chazz questioned. "We get one wannabe and now we gotta get the whole family?"

"And what's with covering his eye like that?" Torimaki said. "Is he trying to look like a mummy?" A dark aura was felt, making everyone turn to see Jaden glaring angrily at Chazz and his little group.

"Say that again... Go on!" Jaden challenged, waiting for them to turn away from him before he turned away back to his brother, who's opponent was starting to come up in the platform.

Alexis saw the whole thing, "He's really protective over his brother..." she mumbled to herself. She smiled a little afterwards. "It's kind of cute."

Asami nodded, her eyes drawn to the bandaged side of his face.

Jason watched as the platform started coming up. From the floor came a man wearing a black suit with dark blue hair pulled into a low ponytail. His black eyes stared into Jason's single brown one, finding himself feeling like someone dropped an anchor on his shoulders. He resisted the strong urge to back away.

Jaden recognized him as the man that Crowler was talking to before.

"You're Jason Yuki?" His deep voice held little to no emotion in it. Jason just nodded, "I'm Professor Ichiro Koga, I teach Duel Monsters History at the Academy. You win, you're in. If not, go home and get better to try again next time." Jason nodded, inserting his deck into his Duel Disk. Ichiro pulled out one of the Academy Issued Duel Disks with an orange center by the life point counter. They both activated theirs.

Jason: 4000

Ichiro: 4000

"I'm feeling generous today, so you can go first."

Jason nodded his head appreciatively. He drew his sixth card, examining his hand. He flipped over a spell card showing a terrifying looking fiend holding a card in the middle of his hands with black smoke – Dark World Dealings.

Ichiro narrowed his eyes at him, "You know part of the game is speaking to your opponent to let them know what's going on, right?" He asked as he and Jason followed the rules of the card, both discarding and then drawing one card.

Jason pointed to the center of his throat before shaking his head. Holding his cards with two fingers, he yanked on his chain to grab his notepad and pen from his belt buckle to write quickly.

'I'm mute,' the revelation caused the vast majority of the occupants of the stadium to gasp in surprise. 'Thanks to discarding my card, I get to special summon the monster back from the graveyard!'

Shooting out from a purple hole that appeared in front of Jason, a skeleton looking creature with broken pieces of flesh holding a spear hoisted it at Ichiro. It also snarled at him. (ATK: 1600/DEF: 1300)

'This is Beiige, Vanguard of Dark World. And with two facedowns, I end my turn.' Jason concluded as two cards appeared behind his Fiend.

"A mute duelist?" Alexis was interested to say the least. "Not every day you see one of those."

Asami shrugged, "I'm not sure if it's mean or not to say that I'm interested."

"This is interesting," Bastion mumbled. "Dark World? That's an archetype that is rarely used. I'm surprised that your brother is using it, especially with you being a Hero user and all."

"Believe me, I was too when he started using them." Jaden laughed. "I don't know. Ever since we were kids, he was always a little out there when it came to his taste of cards and entertainment. He did use Heroes at one point, but then after… after… something, he veered off and started using those for whatever reason." Jaden explained with a shrug, ignoring Syrus and Bastion's questioning gazes. He eyed Jason carefully, watching him twirl a finger around the chain at his side that held his notepad. He saw the discomfort on Jason's face, almost as if he was afraid. If so, why did he keep using these cards? He'd give him back the Heroes if he just asked.

Ichiro shrugged, "Whatever," he picked up his card when Jason signaled him to make a move. "I start with the One for One spell card!"

A spell card appeared showing a Samsara Lotus appearing from a red armored fiend.

"This lets me send one monster from my hand to the graveyard in order to special summon a Level 1 monster from my deck!"

The professor held up one monster.

"I'll discard the Lady in Wight to special summon Skull Servant from my deck to the field in defense mode!"

A skeleton in a purple robe appeared on the field in defense. (ATK: 300/DEF: 200)

"Next I'll summon Armageddon Knight in defense mode!" A fiend warrior appeared carrying a dark sword before kneeling. (ATK: 1400/DEF: 1200) "His ability allows me to send a Dark Type monster from my deck and send it to the graveyard." He cycled through his deck before picking out a monster called Lady in Wight.

"And with two facedowns I end my turn!" Two facedown appeared on his field.

"Okay, they're both dicks..." The female teacher inhaled a sharp agitated breath, rubbing at her temple.

"What do you mean, Callie?"

"I saw Ichiro duel Banner when he first got hired at the end of last year. This is his main deck. Him and Crowler both neglected to take an exam deck to test these boys."

Those sitting by her were shocked to hear this.

"Should we report this to Sheppard?"

"Not now. Let's wait to see what happens before we make a decision." Callie looked ready to slam her head on the table in aggravation of the whole situation.

"What kinda deck is this?" Jaden asked as he looked down in curiosity.

"That's the Wight archetype." Bastion explained. "Its main function is to fill the graveyard with as many Wight monsters as possible to power up the other cards. If done correctly, it's very difficult to beat."

"Is Jason in trouble?" Syrus asked worriedly for the younger Yuki.

"Nah," Jaden waved it off. "He's fine."

Jason drew his next card, examining his hand carefully. He showed a spell card that had a Dark World monster his axe up towards the sky as bolts of lightning came raining down. The same lightning from the card shot out and collided with one of Ichiro's facedown cards as Jason discarded…

Only for the same portal from before to reappear. This time, a monster with very similar armor patterns to Beiige appeared; shoulders of fur and a hand of a beast making it distinctive. It shouldered its golden bow eagerly. (ATK: 1400/DEF: 800) Ichiro glared at him as he took the new monster in.

Jason took the seconds of amazement from the crowd to jot down his notes on what was going on, 'The spell I activated was Dark World Lightning. With this, I discard a card and a set card that is on your side of the field is destroyed… And the card I discarded was my Broww, Huntsman of Dark World. Not only is he special summoned by being discarded, but I can draw one card in addition to that.' Jason drew, bringing his hand up to three.

'And I still have my normal summon, so I sacrifice my Huntsman to summon out my Lucent, Netherlord of Dark World!'

Taking the place of the bow wielding fiend was one that was a lot bigger and more imposing. He was easily close to seven feet tall, was outlined in silver armor whose color and purity put diamond to shame; his ugly flesh peeking through not doing anything to damper the beauty of his choice of clothing. He stared with an imposing smirk as white lightning shot out into his giant horns. (ATK: 2400/DEF: 0)

'Now I attack…'

Ichiro stared in contempt as Jason's Beiige ran through his knight with his spear.

'I reveal my facedown card – Fiend Griefing!' One of Jason's traps flipped open to show a purple elephant laying on a smaller purple monster whilst eating a chicken leg. 'Now I can send that Armageddon Knight of yours to the banished zone to send a Fiend card from my deck to the graveyard…'

Jason fanned his deck out as he decided on what to do. 'I choose my Tour Guide from the Underworld!' Appearing next to his imposing monsters was a small cute looking girl with red/pinkish hair tied into small pigtails. She was wearing a blue uniform used at train stations with white gloves and a purse with a skull on it. She giggled as she swung the bag around. (ATK 1000/DEF: 600)

"Hello!" Syrus leaned forward. Jaden and Bastion laughed at him, although the latter had a small blush as well.

'Now my Tour Guide takes out your Skull Servant!' The only female monster skipped ahead, swinging her purse with such force she sent the Skull Servant packing past Ichiro into the wall behind him, much to his irritation. Jason's Lucent hovered his hand above his head, conjuring up a large burst of lightning that he shot out to the professor, hitting him square in the chest. This just made him even angrier.

Jason: 4000

Ichiro: 1600

"Wow…" Asami stared in complete awe at the display she just witnessed of card playing. Within a single move, this guy Jason had taken nearly 2500 of the professor's life points.

Forget Jaden. She wanted to duel him.

"That was crazy..." Alexis watched dumbfounded.

Zane did nothing.

Chazz was shaking in his seat, a large grin on his face. 'These Yuki's...'

Ichiro growled. He had underestimated this brat. He didn't expect for him to get such a big lead on him, much less this early in the duel. He had been told by Crowler it was fine to use his real deck if he wanted to, so he had run to give the test deck back to use his real one. He thought it'd be easy. He should've had this humongous lead right now. His brain vibrated against his skull as his blood boiled.

"Trap card activate!" He shouted, revealing a card that showed a capsule sparkling with electricity. "Damage Condenser now allows me to summon a monster equal or less to the damage that you just unleashed to me!" He fanned out his deck after discarding. "Lich Lord, King of the Underworld, rise!"

In the place of where the Skull Servant was a skeleton looking creature wearing a red robe and a scepter with a red jewel on top. (ATK: 2400/DEF: 1200)

Jason ended his turn.

'I'm gonna make this kid regret that!' He practically snatched his next card, giving him one. "I play Pot of Greed to draw twice!" He did so. He smirked at his finds. "I set one Trap and then play my Bait Doll to force it to activate. I reveal my facedown Needlebug Nest!" A trap showing a bunch of worms digging around a nest flipped up. "Now the top five cards of my deck go straight to the graveyard!" He milled his top five cards. "This triggers the effect of the Wightprince I just discarded, now I can send a Skull Servant and Lady of Wight from my deck to the graveyard!"

He took the two cards to discard them.

"Now his second effect comes to play! I remove him and two Skull Servants to special summon my most devastating creature!"

Jason watched as the ground opened by Lich Lord. Rising from the ground was a skeleton monster wearing a purple robe with his skull head out for the world to see. He moaned as he stared at Jason's field of Heroes. (ATK: ?/DEF: 0)

"Meet King of the Skull Servants!" Ichiro introduced. "And his attack points are equal to the number of Skull Servants that I have in there times 1000."

Jason didn't see how that was gonna help when just got rid of two of them.

Ichiro stared at him like if he just heard what he thought. "Don't get too safe Yuki! All my Wight monsters count as Skull Servant while in the graveyard!" Jason paled. "I have one normal Skull Servant, two Ladies in Wight, and a Wightprincess, that's 4000 points!"

Skull Servant screamed as his aura enveloped his body and close to half of Ichiro's field. (ATK: ?-4000)

"Attack that Tour Guide of his with Rage of the Servants!"

King of the Skull Servants screamed in anger as it opened its robe up to unleash a strong stream of dark energy that took Jason's poor monster down. Jason had to cover his face when the dark energy continued its course to him.

Jason: 1000

Ichiro: 1600

"I'm not done with you yet, Yuki! My Lich Lord now goes after your Beiige! Destroy it with Dark Fire Scatterblast!"

Jason watched in agony as the scepter in the monster's hand glowed with a red energy that manifested into a ball of dark flames. It shot out towards Jason's Beiige, where it detonated in a blast of fire strong enough to have Jason skidding back just a little bit.

Jason: 200

Ichiro: 1600

Crowler, standing just outside of the arena where Jason and Ichiro were dueling, was smiling happily and creepily. 'Yes, Mr. Koga! Show that brat that he doesn't belong at this prestigious academy!'

Chazz was shaking his head disappointedly, 'And I thought he'd be something interesting…'

"Ouch…" Alexis winced from her spot on the railing.

"That's gotta hurt…" Asami sympathized as Jason pulled himself together.

Zane said nothing.

Syrus and Bastion were staring worriedly, not seeing how Jason could get out of this predicament with one monster and one card facedown on his field on top of the one he had in his hand.

Jaden had a worried expression, not much so for Jason losing, but for the pain that the hits must've brought upon him. "Jason!" he called out. "Stop messing around and show him just how we Yukis like to play hard!"

Jason panted before giving his brother a thumbs up.

"Make your last move, boy!" Ichiro barked with his arms folded.

Jaden didn't know what this guy's problem was, but he'd better solve it quick. The tone he was giving Jason made his blood boil. He supposed he'd should be mad at Crowler too, but it wasn't much of a concern for him. He didn't care what people said about him. It was Jason where Jaden showed just how brutal he could be.

Jason drew his next card, having a hand of two. He examined them as he tried to figure out what a good plan could be. He saw Ichiro tap his foot in boredom as he waited. He felt a little uneasy with all the eyes on him in the current situation he was in. He didn't want to disappoint his brother and get denied the chance to attend Duel Academy with him. Being separated from Jaden was enough of a horrible thought to have him get the starting symptoms of a panic attack. Shaking his head, he went to looking at his hand again to formulate a plan. After looking at his facedown card again, he smiled. He had this won. He did have to write the whole thing in advance, which took one minute. He missed the annoyed look of bloodlust shot his way by Ichiro.

'I activate the Spell – Foolish Burial! I send one monster from my deck to the graveyard!' he selected the card that he wanted. 'Then my facedown flips over!' his second facedown that's been there since the beginning of the duel flipped over. A purple ball with a black coating and tiny flashes of purple lightning opened in the center of Jason's field.

'This is Gateway to Dark World! Now I can special summon the Dark World monster I just put in there!' his graveyard glowed as the monster shot out of the portal. It was a large silver dragon that was as big, if not a little bigger, than Jason's Lucent. It had big black wings with an outer silver edge to them. It tightened its large fists as it surveyed its surroundings. It had downcast horns with golden eyes. It drooled out a pool of saliva as it stared down Ichiro with as much bloodlust as he was shooting back. (ATK: 2700/DEF: 1800)

'This is Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World!'

Bastion whistled, "Impressive creature…"

"You said it," Syrus agreed.

The other students shared that sentiment. Jaden grinned at the reactions to the monster.

Ichiro was unimpressed, however, "What good is this thing gonna do? It still can't do anything to get rid of all my life points. At best, you'd do 300 and then next turn I'll end this duel and you."

Jason shook his head, holding the final card that he had in his hand. He smiled as he flipped it over to show Soul Release.

Ichiro's eyes widened, "You'd better not-"

Jason ignored him as all four of Ichiro's monsters that powered his King of Skull Servants shot out of the graveyard, depowering the monster. (ATK: 4000-0)

Jason sent his two monsters to rid the field of both of Ichiro's monsters. First his Lucent destroyed the Lich Lord while his Dragon Lord balled his fist to send a powerful punch to the King of Skull Servants, shaking the entire arena they were standing in as the duel concluded.

Jason: 200 (Winner)

Ichiro: 0

Crowler gasped. "No! Professor Koga!" He screamed, garnering confused looks from about half of the stadium. Crowler couldn't believe it. Bad enough he lost, but now the Professor he specifically chosen was defeated by the mute brother of the one who took him out!? Impossible!

Ichiro fell to one knee, 'This fucking kid!' He glared at him with killing intent.

Callie watched with interest, "These Yuki's are gonna be worth watching out for..." She muttered. She glanced upwards to where Zane and the girls were, sharing a look with Asami before she stood up and walked away.

The mute boy bowed before he walked out of the arena and back up to his brother, where his older twin grabbed him into a hug. "You made me proud," he muttered before Jason hugged him back. Jaden kissed the top of his brother's head, getting a horrified look from the mute as he furiously wiped at his hair. Jaden laughed at his overdramatic gesture.

"Way to pull a comeback, Jason!" Syrus cheered.

"Nice," Bastion smiled. "I can use some more competition." Jason nodded with a smile of his own. Jaden watched the interactions between his brother and the other two boys with one of his own. He was happy his brother wasn't being made fun of for being mute or for wearing the bandages. Bastion and Syrus looked like they were nice guys. So far, this was going great.

Alexis was looking over to the two of them with a smile. "Those two are gonna make this year very interesting..." she said as Jason high-fived Syrus and shook Bastion's hand in congratulations.

"I think you may be right, Bestie." Asami nodded.

Zane merely walked away, much to the girls' confusion.

Chazz was smirking, "Those two..."

Jaden and Jason clapped hands one more time before they both thought the same thing.

'This is gonna be a great year.'

End of Chapter 1 of Yu-Gi-Oh: Diffusion

Yes, Jason doesn't have the Coopers here. Or I should say that he isn't using them for a certain reason that will get elaborated on later.

Where's Yubel? Again, there's a reason. It'll all get explained later. I didn't forget her, so don't worry. If Jaden or Jason isn't mentioning her, it's for a reason.

Jaden isn't the Supreme King in this one. He doesn't even know who that is... Yet anyway.

Like I said, this what I would do if I could do a Yu-Gi-Oh Series and since I needed a pool of characters to play with and since GX is my favorite, I'm back here. Season 1 is planned out and I'm essentially working up to a specific Arc that I am surprised hasn't been used in a Yu-Gi-Oh Fanfiction before.

Chazz is more in line with his Manga Counterpart than his Anime Counterpart, although some of that smugness is still in there.

Hopefully you enjoyed the first chapter of my (hopeful) return. Once I get back into the swing of things, I'll return to Supreme King Jaden and all its subsequent stories.

Next Time: Number One?! Light End Dragon!


	2. Number One? Light End Dragon!

Disclaimer: Don't own Yu-Gi-Oh GX. Just any and all OCs.

 **AN: Thank you a bunch to those who checked out the first chapter. I have to be honest and say I genuinely forgot how good it feels to get feedback for something after being off the grid for so long.**

 **This was supposed to be the first day at Duel Academy, but the chapter became too cluttered, so I moved it to the next chapter. So, this is a small interlude chapter that will elaborate more on Jaden and Jason's past with hints of what to come. This also gives hints for Chazz's side of the story. He's the Tritagonist of the story (which means he's the third main character.)**

 **There's a duel tossed in here. It was gonna be 8000 life points like in real life, but I decided that it slows the pacing down of the story. So, most duels from now on will be 4000. Only on occasion will 8000 come into fruition like tag duels or a special circumstance, which there will be a lot of.**

 **And someone asked if I will do JadenxAlexis again like in Supreme King Jaden. I wasn't sure about it, but this idea came to me early this week and I thought to myself, "Yes. Let's do it." So, yes, JadenxAlexis is on the table for the moment.**

 **Hope you all** **enjoy!**

 **Update 9/30/17: Not much changed here. Just took out the next chapter preview and added to the ending AN since the story changed A LOT during my planning.**

Chapter 2: Number One!? Light End Dragon!

"You don't think I'll make it?"

"Nope. It's statistically impossible."

"Come on, Bastion, you can't measure this. Jason, help me out here."

Jason shook his head.

Jaden huffed, "Jerk," he turned his head to Syrus, "You think I can make the jump from the chair to the pool?"

Jaden was currently standing on top of the lawn chair that rested on the deck of the cruise ship the upcoming Duel Academy students were currently on. It was two days since the Entrance Exam and the twins had received packages with their dorm assignment, but neglected to look out of either anticipation for Jaden's case or fear in Jason's. They had arrived at the docks to meet with Syrus and Bastion, who had already revealed that their dorms were Slifer Red and Ra Yellow respectively. They had waited a good ten minutes before a man wearing an Obelisk Blue colored uniform had informed them of a change of plans. Apparently, the helicopter that was meant to take them to the island where Duel Academy was had broken down on the way due to engine failure. Thankfully no one had been hurt, but they had to phone in a cruise ship to get the students to the island within the day. Instead of a two-hour flight, it was now gonna be a twelve-hour cruise ride.

After settling in the cruise ship with the twins sharing a cabin with Syrus and Bastion, Jaden had made a bet with them that he could jump from a lawn chair to the pool from fifteen feet away after the tedium of a long cruise ride had surfaced within Jaden's mind, a scratch forming in his nervous system that he just had to itch. Syrus had tried to talk him out of it, but the inner daredevil within Jaden had tempted him to do it now that Syrus had thought it was a bad idea.

So here they were, all dressed in nothing but swim trunks on the cruise for a good twenty minutes and Jaden was already trying to kill himself.

Great start.

"Jaden," Bastion attempted to talk him out of it again. Despite being curious to see if Jaden could actually do it, he much rather not live with the guilt of watching Jaden plummet to his hospitalization without at least putting his two cents out there. "This isn't a good idea."

"Come on, Bastion," Jaden rocketed back and forth on the chair. "How can you say that without even giving me a chance to try."

"I don't need to see someone stick their hand in an oven to know that it'll burn." Bastion smirked at Jaden's frown.

Jaden turned to his twin, the mute Yuki sitting on the floor by the railing of the ship with a sketchbook and pencil in his hands. Even with a wound that didn't blend well with water, he still found himself hanging around the pool to avoid having to be separated from Jaden. He attempted to ignore what Jaden was saying, but his worry for his brother had him occasionally looking up from his sketchbook to make sure Jaden was still alright before going back to drawing whatever it was that he kept staring at.

"Jason, you're smart, is it possible for me to make the jump?" Jaden grinned at his brother to sway him over to his side. Jason looked back up and gave a firm shake of the head before returning to his work. He heard the appalled gasp Jaden had given him and smiled softly to himself, carefully caressing his pen across the pages of his sketchbook.

Bastion nodded in appreciation towards Jason before turning back to Jaden, who playfully frowned at his younger twin. "You see? Maybe now you'll listen to reason."

"Fuck that," Jaden got into a ready position. "I'm proving you all wrong. Jason," said boy looked back up, "You're making me a chocolate coated pancake when I make the jump." He betted as he leaned forward. Jason's lone eye widened in agitation as he saw Jaden prepare to go through with it.

"I can't watch!" Syrus exclaimed, although he made no attempt to move or cover his eyes.

Bastion was the only calm one, having the PDA that came with the package Jaden and Jason neglected to open on hand to alert a faculty member when Jaden hurt himself.

"Here we go!" Jaden rocketed the forward, using the momentum gathered from the fall to jump forward. It was a VERY close jump, but he had made it in the pool with a satisfying splash!

The three boys were all staring wide eyed at the success of Jaden's jump. Syrus had eventually gotten enough of a hold to grin in excitement over the victory while Bastion just shook his head in amusement. Jason went back to drawing after a silent sigh of relief crossed his lips.

Jaden resurfaced from the pool with a triumphant grin on his face. "And look at that," he turned his head to the skeptics he had proven wrong. "I made it!"

"Yes, you did..." Bastion nodded. "You also made everyone around you wet and angry." He kindly gestured to the glaring crowd around them. Some people outside the pool trying to tan had gotten wet from Jaden's mega splash while those in the pool had nearly been overtaken by the wave he made upon impact.

Syrus retreated off to the side when he saw that they were only staring at Jaden, but wouldn't take a chance of getting caught in a potential disaster. Jason buried his face in his sketchbook to disappear from the world.

Jaden laughed sheepishly, rubbing a hand over his head. "Sorry everyone." The offended either accepted his apology immediately or glared a little longer before looking away. Jaden chuckled in relief, "There. Potential disaster avoided." He nodded in approval before climbing out of the pool. He walked over to Jason, who didn't bother looking up - already knowing what he was gonna say. "I want dark chocolate on my pancake." He stated before walking off to grab a towel. Jason shook his head with a smile, finishing up the little details of his sketch.

Syrus cycled his head between the pool and where Jaden had walked off to grab a towel. Once he was sure the tension deflated, he walked back over to where Bastion had remained still the whole time.

"Well that was intense..." Syrus leaned over the railing, his nerves still shot from Jaden's kinda sorta maybe suicide jump.

"Your brother is something else..." Bastion noted as he stood against the railing above where Jason was sitting and Syrus was leaning. Jason just nodded in agreement. Jaden was his brother and best friend and he loved him, but the boy was a handful when you were dealing with his shenanigans. "So, does this dark chocolate pancake taste good that Jaden wants it?"

Jason's smile expanded loosely. He closed his sketchbook to grab his notepad tucked under his leg. He opened it to a fresh page and started writing. He held it up for Bastion to see, 'I can cook somewhat. Someone needs to do it and Jaden can't make a bowl of cereal without spilling something, so it's on me.'

"Your parents don't cook for you guys?" Hearing that got Syrus to look away from the ocean to turn all his attention to the mute Yuki.

Jason shook his head. He hovered his pencil over the notepad whilst debating on whether to tell them a piece of the truth about his and Jaden's parents. He shrugged. It wasn't that serious to keep hidden. He jotted down a few words, handing the carefully torn out page to Syrus. Bastion leaned over to get a better glimpse of what Jason had written.

'Our mom died giving birth to me and Jaden. Our dad travels a lot for work to provide for us. We don't really see him because of this. I think last time I counted was eight months.' Jason shrugged. There was no use in getting depressed about it when he's been dealing with it for a long time now. He never felt sad about his mom either. He couldn't miss who he never even met.

"Eight months!" Syrus exclaimed in surprise. He didn't like going a week without seeing his parents. It made him feel lost and more unsure than he normally was. It was no doubt gonna be the hardest part of his education here, but at least he had Zane.

Bastion winced, guilt swirling around his chest like a typhoon for inadvertently bringing up the bad emotions.

"I apologize if I caused any unfavorable emotions for you," he apologized.

Jason just shrugged. It wasn't that big of a deal. He'd gotten used to his dad's lack of involvement after his reawakening from his coma. Explaining it didn't hurt as much anymore, especially after Jaden went to town on him a few months ago after he missed something very important. Jason bowed his head as he remembered what it was – their birthday.

Syrus, glancing back and forth between Jason and Bastion, cleared his throat to get their attention. "About that chocolate pancake, maybe you can make one for us too when we get to the island?" Jason nodded, silently appreciating Syrus changing the subject for him. He'd like to let others try his cooking. It'd be a nice change. Plus, he'd be able to make sure that he was decent and Jaden wasn't just being nice.

"That reminds me, what dorm are you two in?" Bastion asked. "You never mentioned where you'd be and it'll help to pick up our meal if we knew where the chef was at."

Jason would've gave a chuckle if he had the ability to. He gave a roll of the shoulders as his answer to Bastion's question.

Syrus was baffled, "How do you not know? What's the color of your blazer?" Once again, Jason shrugged. "You guys didn't look? Why?"

With a single swipe of his pencil, Jason jotted down a single word as his answer: Surprise. Bastion chuckled at the slight absurdity of his answer while Syrus seemed to buy his answer. It did seem pretty accurate from the little of Jaden's personality that he had seen. Jason was on his brother tighter than Jaden's own shadow, so he'd do what he did, kinda like how he did with Zane when they were younger.

"You two are definitely interesting..." Bastion summarized, Jason nodding in agreement before picking back up his sketchbook to continue drawing. Curiosity plaguing the other two boys, they sneaked a peek; receiving a raised eyebrow from Bastion and an opened mouth from Syrus. Looking to the pool area, they quickly picked out what, or in this case whom, Jason had been sketching:

It was a pink haired girl wearing a two-piece black bikini, showing off her curves and well-toned stomach. Her hair darkened and stuck to her back from the water, but still carried a vibrant color to it in spite of it all. She had stunning emerald green eyes that put the jewel itself to shame. She was currently lounging in a lawn chair, soaking up the sunlight as she talked to a girl next to her.

Jason's picture matched her perfectly, minus the colors.

"Great artwork, Jason..." Syrus whispering in awe. Jason blushed from the praise, worrying he'd seem like a creep for drawing someone without their knowledge. "You drew Asami perfectly." Jason raised an eyebrow at the revelation of her name.

"You know her?" Bastion asked.

"Yeah. She's best friends with Alexis Rhodes, whose brother is best friends with mine. So, sometimes when Zane and Alexis' brother Atticus hung at our house, Alexis and Asami would come over from time to time. I've never had the courage to go up to them though. They would have to offer to play with me..." He explained, an embarrassed underlying tone in his voice nearly muting his final sentence. "I haven't seen them in two years though, ever since Atticus vanished. Zane still hung out with them but, like my previous comment admitted, I never had the guts to talk to them."

Bastion nodded, accepting the explanation. Jason however, was busy thinking over the name of the girl he'd been sketching.

'Asami... Morning beauty... How convenient.' He smiled at the appropriate definition to her ravishing figure as he carefully wrote her name in cursive above her drawn form. He found himself blushing and looking away from the picture, feeling a similar weight akin to a backpack of boulders collide against his chest. He wondered what he'd do if he looked at the real thing. Probably faint. It happened the last time he was attracted to someone and they came up to him. Jaden didn't stop laughing over it.

Cringing, he flipped the page over back to the one of Asami, immediately feeling calm like someone had put on a DVD of the world's oceans to sooth his anxiety. Maybe it was the one beneath him that was helping him with that.

"Why'd you draw her?" Bastion asked the question Jason was hoping they were too polite/oblivious to ask. He shrugged, just motioning to her tanning figure and giving a thumbs up. Artists just drew whatever they felt was inspirational or beautiful to them. He even drew Syrus and Bastion the other day, feeling grateful to them for not hassling him like a good chunk of people had for the past four years since he lost his only other two friends. Jason had seen her swimming in the pool and was immediately taken by her pretty appearance, so he went to work very quickly. He was still surprised he had drawn her with little fuck ups or alterations to her appearance. Just the thought of tampering her annoyed him.

Bastion, having gotten what the thumbs up meant, shrugged in response. He wasn't gonna intrude on Jason for drawing what he wanted to draw. He was a nice enough guy. At least he seemed like he had no ill intentions with the drawing.

"You're a great artist, Jason..." Syrus complimented once again. Jason smiled in thanks. "Why don't you focus on that instead?" Realizing he came off as condescending, Syrus went to apologize before he was put into silent mode when Jason grabbed his notepad. He and Bastion - who had been watching Jason flip through his sketchbook and capturing a very small glimpse of a different face in the sketchbook - watched as he wrote down what he was feeling.

He handed it to Syrus as he was the one who asked, 'I love Dueling too much. I like drawing, but it's more of a hobby than a life goal like dueling is. If I can't make it in the pro league, then I'll focus on designer stuff.' He wrote down. Syrus nodded before handing the paper back to Jason, who nonchalantly tossed it over his shoulder into the ocean.

Bastion cringed, "Quit harming the environment more than humans already have." Syrus laughed while Jason looked like he wanted to, instead hanging his head in his hand as his body shook with an ajar mouth, his two companions deducing what he was meant to be doing. Bastion chuckled too, enjoying the moment of serenity between them.

...

Ten minutes ago, over by the towels, Jaden was already going to work in drying himself off when he saw someone's shadow climb on top of his own. He turned around to see that it was that guy Chazz, who neglected his Obelisk jacket for a dark blue tee shirt and black trunks. Jaden pinned him as the guy whose buddy had made a comment on Jason's face. Remembering that, Jaden glared at him.

"Can I help you?" He growled out, doing his best to remain calm to avoid a fight. Last time he spent a night in the police station after someone had ripped Jason's bandages off in his old junior high school, having gotten suspended in addition.

"Relax, Yuki, I'm not here to start anything." Chazz gave a small glare of his own, offended that Jaden was making accusations.

"Sorry, it's just after the Entrance Exam comment..."

Remembering Jaden's angry expression that Chazz was still a little shaken up by, he brushed off the uncomfortable feelings he had over it. "Whatever my friend said is on him. I really don't care that your brother wears bandages. Whatever that is has nothing to do with me, so I don't care."

Jaden decided that was an okay answer. Maybe he could've done with a little less of a douchy tone, but hey, you couldn't win them all.

"You still didn't answer my question..." Jaden reminded, looking past Chazz to see Jason showing Bastion and Syrus whatever it was that he had been drawing during his death defying jump. He made a mental note to probe Jason later for information on it.

Chazz gave a cocky smirk, something that enticed Jaden to both smirk back and put his guard up. "Your victory over Crowler is causing quite the ruckus amongst the students. Many are calling it either luck or a genuine display of skill..." Jaden resisted a laugh. "So, I'm here to see which side is correct..."

"A duel..." Jaden stated, nodding his head slowly as the excitement to face a new opponent swelled up inside of him. He saw Chazz nod his own head in agreement. "Just give me a second to run back to my cabin and grab my deck and disk."

"I have to go to mine and grab my stuff as well," Chazz turned around. "Meet me by the back of the cruise ship by the dining room area. We won't be interrupted there."

Jaden agreed, watching Chazz walk off. He turned around, intending to ask Jason and the others to come and watch. He stopped though when he saw Jason smiling and looking to be enjoying himself with Syrus and Bastion's company. He adorned a smile of his own. He hasn't seen Jason this happy since, well, ever. He was grateful to Syrus and Bastion for their kindness towards his brother, something their own father has forgotten to do in recent years. Jaden could feel his blood begin boiling, especially as he remembered what he yelled at him about the last time they talked.

Burying the agitation down, he spared his twin one last look before he turned and walked off to the cabin to grab his things, missing Jason's relaxed stare over to a girl with pink hair.

...

Five minutes later, Jaden had met up with Chazz, still wearing only his dark red swim trunks with his second edition Kaibacorp Duel Disk plastered on his wrist. He saw Chazz leaning against the railing, wearing a Disk like the one Professor Ichiro had but with a blue center and outline instead of orange.

Chazz frowned upon seeing Jaden's Duel Disk. "Any reason why you're not wearing your Academy Disk?"

Jaden blinked, "They sent those?" Although he should've figured that out after seeing Chazz and a teacher wearing one.

"You did get a package, right?" Jaden nodded. "Did you open it?" Jaden shook his head. Chazz frowned, "Why?" Jaden shrugged. The lack of a verbal response was pushing all one thousand of Chazz's forced in buttons. "Talk!"

Jaden hissed through his teeth in laughter, enjoying seeing Chazz flip out. "Sorry. No, I didn't open mine. I want it to be a surprise for when I get to the Academy." He eyed Chazz's Disk, "Although if there's a badass Duel Disk like that in there..." He turned, no intention of walking away. He waited to see what Chazz would say or scream.

"Forget it!" Jaden remembered that Chazz wanted this quiet so they wouldn't get interrupted. "You're a pain in the ass..."

"That's something you and my brother would agree on..." Jaden laughed as he turned back around.

"Whatever..." Chazz muttered as he turned his disk on. Jaden wasn't sure if it was because he was used to picking out subtle body movements after having Jason as his brother their whole lives, but Chazz looked stressed. His back was stiffer than Jason when it came time to clean his wound, eyes dropping downward to stare at the well-constructed beige wooden floor of the ship.

Jaden followed his lead after letting his suspicions dwindle, both boys pulling out their five cards. He was probably unjustly assuming something that wasn't there.

"Duel!"

Jaden: 4000

Chazz: 4000

"You challenged me, so I'll go first!" Jaden drew his card. He examined his hand, nodding to himself. "First I'll throw down three facedowns and summon Elemental Hero Avian in defense mode to end my move!"

The feathered hero appeared in front of Jaden's set cards, covering his chest with his arms. (ATK: 1000/DEF: 1000)

Chazz scoffed, "For the guy who beat Crowler, that was a pretty underwhelming move." He drew, his disappointment adorning his face with a clear and present frown. "I summon Dynamite Dragon in attack mode!"

A white scale dragon appeared with many bombs sticking out of multiple joints of its body. He bounced a larger bomb in his hand with a cruel smile on his face. (ATK: 1500/DEF: 900)

"Now I'll attack your Avian! Dynamite Toss!" The dragon flew over Avian and dropped the bomb on his head, blowing him into smithereens.

Jaden pressed a button on his Duel Disk, "I reveal Hero Signal! Thanks to this, I can now summon out an Elemental Hero that's Level 4 or lower!" He took his deck and fanned it out, "And I choose Sparkman!"

The electric themed hero appeared ready to fight, jolts of electricity zapping out of his hands. (ATK: 1600/DEF: 1400)

Chazz smirked, "Good for you, you're gonna need him." He showed a spell card from his hand that depicted two dragons, one light and one dark, flying together. "My Dragon's Charge spell allows me to draw a card when a Dragon destroys a monster in battle." Chazz drew, pleased with what he got. "And if it is a dragon, I can summon it..."

Jaden stared in a blend of bewilderment and excitement when a dragon with silver platted armor appeared by Chazz's Dynamite Dragon. (ATK: 1900/DEF: 1400) He gave an amused chuckle, "Impressive..."

"Attack his Sparkman! Armored Talon!" The new armored dragon's talons glistened in the early morning sunlight as it charged to Jaden's Sparkman. It raised a hand before cutting Jaden's Sparkman into an even four pieces.

Jaden: 3700

Chazz: 4000

"I play my second trap, Hero Counterattack!" Jaden's middle facedown flipped up to reveal Sparkman standing tall in a junkyard. "Now since my monster was destroyed, you have to choose a card from my hand and if it's a Hero monster, I can summon it and destroy a monster on your field."

Jaden held up his two-card hand, "Now choose wisely..."

Chazz could easily tell from the smirk crossing onto Jaden's face that it doesn't matter what he picked. He groaned, "The right,"

"Cool... Now I get my Elemental Hero Burstinatrix!" The fiery themed heroine of the Elemental Heroes appeared amongst a wall of flames. (ATK: 1200/DEF: 800) "And you lose your Dynamite Dragon!"

The dragon blew up in a display that made him proud even though he was the one exploding this time.

Chazz smirked, "I guess you aren't as brain dead as you appear to be. When a monster destroys Dynamite Dragon, the opposing monster loses 300 attack points. By using your trap, you avoided that handicap."

"I did?" Jaden blinked confused. "I was just creeped out by the look he was giving me..."

Chazz fell over in utter disbelief before hopping back up with a frustrated glare. "Do you ever take anything seriously!?"

"When it comes to my brother, yeah. If I'm in danger, sure. Now? This is just a friendly match." He shrugged. "I'm just here for fun, bro."

Chazz growled at his easygoing nature. He glanced over his remaining four cards. "I place two cards face down to end my turn." He concluded as two cards appeared behind his Armored Dragon.

Jaden drew, gaining a hand of two. "I activate the effect of King of the Swamp from my hand! Now I send it to the graveyard to add a Polymerization to my hand." He took his desired spell. "Now I'll reveal my facedown Call of the Haunted to bring back my Avian!"

The feathered hero appeared beside Burstinatrix. (ATK: 1000/DEF: 1000)

"Now I play Polymerization to fuse them together to bring out my Elemental Hero Flame Wingman!"

The familiar vortex appeared above the two heroes. They jumped in before Jaden's monster from his duel with Crowler appeared in their stead. (ATK: 2100/DEF: 1200)

"Attack with Flame Shoot!"

The Wingman raised his dragon's hand up, charging a large ball of flames that he shot out in the direction of Chazz's Armored Dragon, burning the dragon to a crisp.

Jaden: 3700

Chazz: 3800

"Now his special ability kicks in! You take damage equal to the attack points of your dragon!"

Flame Wingman hovered next to Chazz, dragon claw at the ready to shoot Chazz. Chazz braced himself for impact as Flame Wingman coated him with fire.

Jaden: 3700

Chazz: 1900

"I activate Bond of Dragons!" Chazz's facedown flipped up to depict a dragon carrying his injured partner off a battlefield. "Now that a Level 4 Dragon was destroyed, I can special summon one from my deck!" He searched for a card to fulfill his criteria. "Spined Lindworm take Armored Dragon's place!"

A dinosaur looking monster appeared on all fours, growling in anticipation as its five spiked tails waved behind him. (ATK: 1900/DEF: 1200)

Jaden laughed, "Awesome looking monster!" He praised. Chazz made no response to his compliment. "I'll end my turn."

Chazz drew his card. Jaden was a real nonchalant pain in the ass, but he could tell that his victory over Crowler wasn't a fluke. Or, to be more precise, it wasn't that much of a fluke if he was pushing him this much. Chazz spared a glance at his deck, a typhoon of guilty and repressed emotions threatening to drown him from the inside.

He nodded to himself, "I sacrifice my Lindworm to summon out my Genesis Dragon!"

Chazz's Lindworm vanished from the field to make room for a large red scale dragon with black wings. (ATK: 2200/DEF: 1800)

"Now although he's strong enough already, I'll activate his effect to lower the strength of your Wingman by 500!"

Jaden's eyes widened when the Genesis Dragon fired a fireball that made Wingman buckle down to the pressure. (ATK: 2100-1600/DEF: 1200-700)

"Attack with Genesis Fireball!"

Flame Wingman did his best to stand up to the attack, but failed as it was shot away and erupted into a ball of fire.

Jaden: 3100

Chazz: 1900

"Trap activate!" Chazz continued, revealing a card depicting a dragon soaring through space with the spirit of another dragon above him, seemingly guiding him. "Dragon Evolution allows me to tribute a Dragon to summon another one from my hand that's a level higher than the one I have on the field."

Jaden cringed.

"With Genesis a Level 6, I can summon a Level 7 Dragon!" He looked at his two-card hand. "Come on out, Hurricane Dragon!"

Replacing the Genesis Dragon was a green scaled dragon with a fan adorning its chest and tail. It had large white wings and white claws, staring at Jaden eerily. Its tail activated, allowing it to blow some dust out of Chazz's hair. (ATK: 2200/DEF: 1800)

"Attack Yuki with Hurricane Slash!"

The dragon activated the fan on its chest, attempting to suck Jaden in to its attack. Jaden held his ground, but couldn't do much when the Dragon grew impatient from waiting and decided to use its tail to swing at Jaden, who was sent flying to the railing. Jaden almost flipped over, but managed to throw himself back over.

Jaden: 900

Chazz: 1900

Chazz watched in genuine horror of what he almost did. "Oh shit! Yuki, are you okay?"

Jaden laughed, "If you hadn't asked me just now, I'd have flipped out. It was an accident. Accidents happen..." His voice trailed off as he let his mind wander back five years while he took his spot back across from Chazz.

The sound of a gun firing off had filled his head to such an extreme he was forced to cover his ears, which he immediately regretted when they simply amplified the sounds he heard. His head replayed the horror and fear induced face of his brother that took a long five seconds for Jaden to even realize what had just happened to him. He felt his eyes water, but successfully held them back. He had plenty of practice over the years to do so.

"... ur move."

"Huh?" Jaden was ripped from his thoughts.

"I said I place one facedown to end my turn." Chazz repeated, motioning to his facedown that was the last card he had.

"Oh. Sorry. Was just thinking." Jaden drew, having a hand of two. He only had an active and useless Call of the Haunted out on his field. He needed to come up with something fast or else Chazz's Dragon would end him next turn. Jaden needed more options.

"I play Pot of Greed!" He drew twice. He smiled. "Awesome! I activate the ability of Elemental Hero Captain Gold from my hand. I discard him to add a certain field spell to my hand!" He discarded before taking a card from the middle of his deck.

Chazz watched on in interest. Depending on what he did now would convince him of what side of the spectrum he fell on regarding Jaden.

"I play Elemental Hero Wildheart in attack mode!" A dark-skinned, muscled man in a loincloth, a giant sword on his back jumped on to the field. (ATK: 1500/DEF: 1600)

His field spell slot opened, "And now I activate Skyscraper!" He slid the card into the slot to replace the scenery from the cruise ship to a large urban city with multiple tall buildings surrounding them. Chazz looked on with feign interest.

"Now when an Elemental Hero battles a monster stronger, they gain 1000 attack points!" Chazz gasped. "Yep, it's coming for you. Wildheart, attack his Hurricane Dragon with Wild Slash!"

His new Hero grabbed the hilt of his weapon before charging towards Chazz's dragon with a war cry. He gained more strength from the environment around him as he slashed Chazz's dragon to pieces. (ATK: 1500-2500)

Jaden: 900

Chazz: 1600

"And my last card facedown will end my move..." Jaden concluded as his Wildheart returned to normal strength. (ATK: 2500-1500)

Chazz huffed before he broke out into a grin. Despite his burning feelings swelling within him, he was enjoying himself. Maybe it wasn't so bad that Jaden was a nonchalant easygoing idiot. His dueling skills made it tolerable.

Jaden saw the grin, "What's so funny?" He returned it. "Having fun?"

"I don't know, are you?"

"I always have fun in a duel. This is no exception. I gotta say, you're tough Chazz."

"I was the number one in my prep school after all..." He revealed with a hint of pride. Contrasting his confident and proud stance, he felt cold inside once again, hating how his body couldn't go and choose a stable temperature. One moment he felt like he was gonna get frostbite and the next he felt like overheating.

"Really!?" Jaden asked ecstatic. "No wonder this is so fun! You're great!"

'You're a cheat.'

'You're a hack.'

'Of course, he'd start in Obelisk when his family is rich. Money gets you anything and away with everything.'

Chazz growled as he snatched his lone card. He looked at it and his eyes widened to saucers. He looked behind him, seemingly trying to locate something amidst the city they were still fighting in. Jaden watched perplexed, almost as if he was watching Jason sketch a new idea he had come up with and not following why he put a certain detail in it.

Chazz shook his head, not wanting to do this. But still, he couldn't just throw the match. His pride was too big.

"I activate my trap - Lifeline from the Graveyard!" His trap flipped open to show a cemetery with two beams of light firing out of the ground. "Now I select two monsters from my graveyard and special summon them to the field!"

"Okay, what's the catch?"

"I have to pay 100 life points for every Level the two monsters have. Example..." Two beams of light fired from Chazz's field, forcing Jaden to cover his face. Out of the light came Chazz's Armored Dragon and his Spined Lindworm. (ATK: 1900/DEF: 1200) (ATK: 1900/DEF: 1400)

"Since these guys both make up eight levels altogether, I have to pay 800 life points." Chazz explained as a red aura surrounded him.

Jaden: 900

Chazz: 800

"But they sadly won't be staying here for long..." He held his last card up, staring at it thoughtfully one last time before he swallowed his hesitation and quickly slapped it on his disk before he changed his mind.

Jaden watched as Chazz's two dragons left the field as quickly as they arrived. In their spot came a very large dragon, probably Chazz's biggest yet. It had white scales and four wings. It had a golden helmet that circled around and over its head, the same golden design traveling down to the middle of the dragon's chest. It had multiple emerald jewels on its body; one on its forehead, one on the chest and three on the side of its neck. It roared triumphantly towards Jaden. (ATK: 2600/DEF: 2100)

Jaden stared in awe, "Wow..." He mumbled in fascination.

"Meet Light End Dragon," Chazz introduced. "One of my ace's. Now his ability activates..." The jewels on the dragon glowed. "Now at the cost of 500 attack and defense points, I can lower one of your monster's strengths by 1500." The dragon powered up, hurting itself in the process. (ATK: 2600-2100/DEF: 2100-1600)

Jaden gasped as his Wildheart was shot with the focused beam of light, unable to do anything about it. (ATK: 1500-0)

"It's been a long time since I had to pull this guy out, so kudos to you for that, Jaden," Chazz used his first name for the first time since they started. "But this is the end of our duel. Light End Dragon, attack with Light Beam!"

The dragon opened its mouth as it shot a bright beam of light out to Jaden's Wildheart. Even the boost from Skyscraper wouldn't help Jaden survive the round (ATK: 0-1000). Chazz closed his eyes with a satisfied smile, preparing for victory to come to him...

And then he was forced to open them again when Jaden uttered four words:

"I activate my Trap!" Jaden's lone facedown flipped up to show a bunch of ghosts swirling around a monster. "Swamp of the Fallen! Now your Light End Dragon loses half of its attack points!"

Chazz watched in shock as his dragon's beam was cut down by half (ATK: 2100-1050). Wildheart still couldn't stand up to it, but Jaden wasn't as staggered as he would've originally been.

Jaden: 850

Chazz: 800

Jaden sighed in relief. "Damn, that was close." He grinned at Chazz. "I gotta say, I haven't had this much fun in a duel since my brother relearned the game and got back his skills!"

"Relearned?" Chazz asked. "Why did he forget?"

Jaden realized he said too much and drew his lone card. Chazz didn't ignore the agitated look Jaden had at what he said. "I play Graceful Charity! Now I draw three cards, but have to discard two!"

Chazz watched in interest when Jaden drew three and sent two to the graveyard, leaving him with a lone card.

Jaden smiled at his find, "You put up a great duel, Chazz..." He stated, Chazz responding with a raised eyebrow. Even his Light End Dragon didn't quite understand what Jaden was getting at.

Jaden held out his single card, showcasing his spell card from his duel with Crowler - Miracle Fusion. "Now I fuse the Sparkman and King of the Swamp in my graveyard to create something exquisite!"

Chazz watched as Sparkman and King of the Swamp appeared on Jaden's field. The swamp king threw itself over Sparkman. They jumped into the blue vortex to form into whatever monster Jaden had in mind. Out of the vortex was something new. It was a large and tall monster with yellow armor and a round blue center that was coated with electricity. It was his Thunder Giant. (ATK: 2400/DEF: 1500)

Chazz closed his eyes again, this time in acceptance.

"Attack with Voltic Thunder and end this!"

Thunder Giant held up a hand out towards Chazz's dragon. A large beam of yellow lightning shot out to surround the dragon. It tried to stay strong, but it collapsed under the weight of the attack, blowing up and creating a large dust cloud.

Jaden: 850 (Winner)

Chazz: 0

Jaden held his index and middle finger out in a salute, "That's game, Chazz! You're really strong!"

Chazz nodded in silence, turning around to walk away before he stopped in shock. He glanced ahead at the ocean, seeing something that had him choking on the air in his lungs.

"W-why are you...?"

Jaden looked outwards to where Chazz was looking. While it took him a second, he eventually caught a glimpse of what Chazz was staring at. He saw a dragon! It was half white and half black. It was staring at Chazz solemnly, like if it felt bad for him.

"Isn't that your Light End Dragon?"

"No, it's-" Chazz turned in shock at Jaden. "Wait! You can see him?!"

"Yeah, why?"

"You can see Duel Spirits?"

"Since I can remember..." Jaden responded with a nonchalant shrug. "I haven't seen one in five years though, so I'm shocked that there's more other than the one that I had."

Chazz frowned, "Had?"

Jaden sighed. He wasn't ready to talk about it. "If that's not your Light End Dragon, then what is it?"

Chazz grumbled, turning around to stare at the dragon once again. He shared a look of regret with it as the dragon faded away. He missed Jaden walking up to him until he was shoulder to shoulder with him.

"That was my old ace monster - Light and Darkness Dragon..." He explained. "It's been with me for a long time, since I was four and began playing. I won a lot of duels with it. It was even a source of company on the nights I was home alone practicing or just crawling around..."

Jaden nodded.

"When I got accepted here, many people started giving me shit about how I was only here because of my family and their money. So, I decided to prove them wrong by burying my dragon and fighting on my own. I'll show everyone that I earned my right to be here and not because my mom, dad or my brothers bribed anyone. Once I prove I'm legit, then I'll add it back."

Jaden nodded, accepting his story. However, he couldn't help but frown just a bit. "All you're doing is holding yourself back," Chazz looked at him away from where his dragon was. "If that's your ace, then there's no reason to keep it locked away. That's disrespectful to your dragon and to yourself. Maybe if you had it, you would've beaten me today."

Chazz frowned, this time in anger. "You don't know what I can do. I don't need it-"

"I said the same thing about my spirit and now she's gone!" Jaden snapped. Chazz's eyes widened as he took a step back in fear. "She was stolen from me. She is gone and I regret what I did and said. Now I won't ever get her back! Don't make the mistake I did. You might not get a chance to make up with your dragon."

He huffed, "This duel doesn't count." He stated. "When you get it together, come back and find me. We'll have ourselves a proper match." He held his hand out for Chazz to take. Chazz glanced down at it, hesitantly reaching forward to clasp them together. Once he did, he felt a weird sense of determination in him.

"I don't mean to come across as an asshole, but I'm doing you a favor here, Chazz." Jaden said as they shook hands. Jaden pulled back. "Don't lock your dragon away temporarily... It may turn into a permanent lockup..." With that, he walked away, leaving Chazz to ponder what he just said.

Chazz looked at his hand that shook Jaden's. He turned back to where he saw his dragon before. Nodding, he walked off in the opposite direction towards his cabin. 'You won this round, Jaden. Next time, I'll win... I just don't know if it'll be with or without my dragon.'

Jaden stopped at the corner that would lead him back to where he had come from. He waited for something, turning his head to see Jason come out from around the corner. He looked shocked. Jaden remained stoic.

'You told me that you sent Yubel away.' He said in sign language. 'When did she get stolen?'

Jaden didn't say anything. There were so many parts to the story that he didn't have the time or emotional strength to get through all of them. He simply grabbed his brother's hand and started pulling him off towards their cabin. He knew Jason was confused, but this was for everyone's benefit.

That didn't stop him from silently shedding a few tears.

...

That same night, the twins found themselves staring at their packages that Duel Academy had sent them. They were sitting cross legged on a single bed, their packages sitting shoulder to shoulder across from another. Bastion and Syrus were already sleeping in two of the four beds that occupied the room. After seeing Chazz's Duel Disk, Jaden needed to see his. The anticipation was too much to hold off until arrival.

"Ready?" Jaden asked. Jason gave a hesitant nod. While he truthfully didn't care what dorm he was in, he was silently hoping that he was with Jaden. Jason reached for his package, but chickened out at the last second. Jaden laughed, "Fine, I'll go first." Jaden calmly took the lid off, showing a Duel Disk with a red outline in similar fashion to Chazz's blue one from earlier. Under it Jaden picked out a red jacket, signaling his dorm affiliation.

'Slifer Red...' Jason signed to his brother, surprised that he was in the lowest ranked dorm. Although with his test scores... Okay, it made sense.

Jaden grinned, "My favorite color," he didn't seem fazed at all about being in the lowest dorm. "Okay, Jason, you go."

Jason nodded. He followed Jaden's earlier lead and slowly took the lid off, praying for Red as well after seeing what Jaden had. He too saw a Duel Disk, but his heart sunk to his stomach when he saw the color of it and his jacket:

Yellow.

"Ra Yellow?" Jaden asked in surprise. Jason sat there dumbfounded. He then smiled ecstatic. "I'm so proud of you!" He reached out to hug his brother. "With your test scores, it only makes sense. You've always been a better test taker than me..." He trailed off when he pulled back and saw Jason start to shake. His eye welded up with tears. "Why're you crying?"

Jason held his hands up, 'Now we won't be together anymore.'

"I don't care that you're in Yellow and I'm in Red. I'll still come see you. You're my brother." Jaden explained, seemingly thinking he solved the issue of Jason's hesitance.

Jason shook his head wildly, some of his tears hitting Jaden. 'No! Not that! I was alone for so long in my coma with those nightmares about Mom…' Jaden lowered his head. 'At least we were always in the same area together. Now? I don't know if I'm gonna make it without you there with me. The nightmares, my injury, my insecurities,' he listed. 'It's all too much for me!' Jason lowered his head, 'I'm weak without you.'

Jaden hated seeing his brother so insecure. Sure, it was always there due to his born disability and the one that was forced on him when they were ten, but he was confident that they could move on ahead pass it. He thought they were making progress, especially after Jason had opened up about what his nightmares were actually about, but it seemed to be just the torturous beginning to a long healing process.

"Maybe... Maybe we both need this..." Jason looked at him in shock. "We've been with one another for so long with only each other since that person we're supposed to call Dad isn't around." Jaden darkened after mentioning their father while Jason grew guilty. Despite Jaden liking to think that Jason was clueless to the reason of their father's absence, he wasn't naïve. He didn't need to be told. The clues were all there for him to put together.

"Maybe we can learn something from this. Maybe we can learn a few things that we wouldn't be able to if we're stuck together all the time. Slifer Red may have a few things in store for me and Ra Yellow may have a few things in store for you. We can still hang out. I don't care what colors we wear. I'm not abandoning you, I promise." Jaden reached forward and lightly pecked his brother's forehead. Jason didn't retract in disgust this time, simply accepting it.

"And please don't be afraid to make friends." Jaden sternly said. "I don't wanna have to see you sitting by yourself every night just because you're too scared to get close to people. This," he poked his bandages, "Shouldn't run your life, neither should this." He motioned to Jason's throat.

Jason managed a small smile, 'When did you get so insightful?'

"I learned a few things from those hospital dramas I watched during your coma." Jaden laughed. Jason smiled. "And you don't have to worry about being alone. Bastion will be there with you." Jason nodded. He supposed he'd forgotten that in his hysteria. "So? Are you okay now?"

Jason nodded slowly, 'You promise you'll still come see me?'

"Yes, you idiot," Jaden light heartedly rolled his eyes. "We're family. I'll still come visit, although you better come by the Slifer Dorm too. I don't want to be the only one doing the walking, especially on my lazy days." Jason smiled at that. He agreed with that sentiment.

...

The next morning, the Yuki's, now clad in their Academy jackets, stood at the helm of the ship with the rest of the Academy students. Bastion stood next to his fellow Ra, intrigued and satisfied that one of the Yuki's was with him, more so because it was the mute Jason. Syrus was next to his fellow Slifer, ecstatic and relieved that he wouldn't be alone in the dorm with no one to talk to. Jaden could pick out Chazz standing in the back with his cronies. He still looked as conflicted as he did when Jaden left him yesterday. He suspected he hadn't fully accepted what Jaden told him.

Whilst staring at Chazz, he missed Jason stealing a glance at the girl he sketched from yesterday - Asami Elric. He learned her last name from Syrus when the tiny blue haired boy saw her name doodled above her sketch, feeling he'd tell him to help complete the picture. She stood next to a blonde girl with hazel colored eyes - Alexis Rhodes, again, according to Syrus when she came to talk to Asami yesterday while they were still at the pool. They wore the traditional Obelisk Blue girl colors, blue and white with blue high heels. Jason thanked the higher ups for the skirt accessory. Once he saw Asami's head about to turn, he moved his to look ahead. Bastion smirked at him.

"Attention new Academy duelists," He overheard the captain speaking over the intercom, "This is your captain speaking, if you look out ahead, you'll see your new home away from home." Most of the students did just that as they saw an island clear in their sights. Far away, it was mainly green due to most of the forest areas and even saw a dormant volcano. But the main attraction was the building in the center of the island. It was a silver color, surrounded by four tan spires. At closer inspection, they saw three dishes in the middle; a blue, yellow and red one in that order going diagonally down, symbolizing the dorm colors.

"Next stop, Academy Island!"

End of Chapter 2 of Yu-Gi-Oh GX Diffusion

That's it!

Chazz's Deck is his Manga one, as evident from his Light End Dragon card. I love his Manga deck, so I added it here. That's not to say he won't get Ojamas, but it'll be vastly different from canon if I go there.

Yubel was mentioned and it seems she was taken by someone. Don't forget that little tidbit.

Jaden vs. Chazz Round 1 is complete. Their rivalry will be as prevalent as it was in the Manga.

And there's a lot of craziness in store, especially considering Jaden and Jason's past. Let's just say that Jason being born and using Dark World has a lot of complex layers to it that will be prevalent in a lot of storylines down the road. Not everything is what it seems there.

Next Time: Arrival at Academy Island! Non-Fusion Area!


	3. Arrival at Academy Island! Non-Fusion

Chapter 3:

Disclaimer: Don't own Yu-Gi-Oh GX. Only own any OCs.

AN: **Sorry for the very long wait, but I was rewriting a lot of this story's future plans. I wasn't satisfied with where this story would've gone had I continued it, so I reworked a lot of what I had in mind. I even went back and redid the first two chapters. And as much as I love making all of you satisfied, I feel it's just as important for me to satisfy me as much as you. After all, if I'm not having fun, then no one will get enjoyment out of this.**

 **So, I decided that we will have Synchros and XYZ Summonings in this story as well to increase the variety of the Duels. If this is an issue for you, I do apologize, but this is an AU. Canon doesn't need to be followed when taking that into account. If it helps, the other summonings will have an in-story reason for showing up, but it won't be for a while.**

 **Anyway, hope you enjoy this new chapter!**

Chapter 3: Arrival at Academy Island! Non-Fusion Area!

After an hour, the students having to get off the boat one by one and check in to make sure everyone was here, Jaden and the others found themselves in a large classroom you'd commonly see in a College or a University. All the first years were clammed up next to one another, Jaden having to stand up in a similar vein to an army soldier. He was standing with Syrus with the other Slifer Reds, picking out Jason standing with Bastion by the Ra Yellows. Chazz was staring blankly ahead with the Obelisk Blues towards the back.

Seconds later, a man in his late forties or early fifties appeared on the giant screen before every new student. He was bald but had a tan goatee around the chin. He wore a red blazer that was slightly darker than normal over a shirt and tie.

Jaden turned to Jason and gave a smirk. He was wearing the same color shade as the head guy of the school. So, that made him and the Slifers cooler than the others.

Jason's clever retort was to hold a fist, take his other hand, turn it like if he was working a lever, and slowly raised his middle finger.

"Good morning and welcome my students," the guy on screen said in a pleasant voice. Jaden and Jason halted their actions, "I am Chancellor Sheppard, the headmaster here, and you are the best and brightest duelists in the world." As he talked, Jaden picked out some cocky laughs from the Obelisks. He turned to see if his new 'buddy' Chazz was amongst them. He was just staring ahead with a blank stare Jaden hoped was a thoughtful one. They locked eyes when Chazz turned. The Obelisk shrugged Jaden's stare off as the Chancellor continued to speak. "Now please, get yourselves settled in at your assigned dorms. I hope you find them quite comfortable; depending on how you ranked of course." He said with a slight chuckle. "Classes begin tomorrow at 8am sharp. Pick your schedule up from our Duel Monsters Artwork teacher, Callie Elric!"

Jason and Syrus' turned their attention to the front after hearing that name. Bastion looked to Syrus with a questioning gaze, the shorter boy nodding his head at the unasked question – that was Asami's sister. Jason watched the holder of his affection be handed her schedule with a smile shared between the two of them, his lips upturning into a smile as his face took on a red hue.

Jaden stood on the side, using his pinkie to clean out his ear.

The group of four stood in line as they awaited their turn to be handed their schedules. After passing their entrance tests, they were given a form that had the list of classes and activities the school provided. The amount of branched off classes that the school provided was nothing short of marvelous, so the student body loved having options to pick from that would make their experience here even more satisfying and fun. They were still required to take stuff like Math and Literature for their curriculum. They each nodded and bowed in respect to their teacher before standing outside of the hall.

Jaden snatched Jason's schedule, getting a glare from his younger twin as he rubbed his hand. "Time to compare schedules!"

Syrus and Bastion laughed as they put theirs outward for them to see.

"Hmmm..." Jaden pondered, Jason peeking over his shoulder. "Me, Syrus, and Bastion share Gym..."

"Jason and Bastion share Dueling Techniques."

"We all share Lunch..."

"Syrus and Jaden share Duel Monsters History while Jason has it on his own."

"Jaden and Jason share Monster Types."

"Jason and Bastion share Geometry, which I'm happy to say that Syrus and I will stay in good 'ol Remedial Math." The two Ras laughed. "We all have different Literature classes and Spell and Trap classes. We each have our own unique courses, like Syrus' Ritual Class, Bastion's Duel Puzzles Class and my Fusion Course."

Jason rolled his eye. Gee, he wondered why Jaden chose that on the registration form.

Jaden blinked when he saw Jason's schedule, "Duel Monsters Artwork?" He turned for an explanation. He eyed his brother's fingers as he went to explaining.

'I can't take Gym, so I had to pick another regional course. It was either that or another Math class. Since I already draw, I might as well get graded on it.' Jason finished with a shrug. The three nodded in understanding.

"Looks like we'll see each other enough times to stay acquainted." Syrus stated, happy that he'd being seeing his new friends enough times outside of the dorms. Maybe he wouldn't be so alone now. He'd hardly see Zane according to the elder Truesdale due to his own classes and dorm affiliation.

"Fine with me," Bastion nodded, satisfied with the schedule.

"Things are okay on my end." Jaden agreed. Jason shrugged as his answer. "Now then, we might as well check out our dorms while we're at it. Don't we have Welcome Dinners soon?"

"Towards the middle of the day. It's still kinda early." Bastion answered.

"Alright. Well, we'll see you guys later!" Jaden grabbed Jason's shoulder, squeezing tightly when his brother looked away in anxiety. "Hey, Jace," the younger Yuki looked towards his brother. "Be strong for me, okay?" He gave a grin that Jason couldn't help to return. "Thanks! See ya!" He pecked his brother's forehead before running off with Syrus when Jason went to strangle him.

Bastion chuckled at the display of affection between the brothers. "Let's go check out our living quarters for the year..." Jason nodded as the two left in the direction of their dorm.

Little known to them, they were being watched by a cold set of brown eyes from two doors down... And behind that set of eyes, hovering by the top of the ceiling, was one dark brown eye peering at Jason and Bastion from behind a black headmask.

'That little prick...' Both thought at the same time.

...

Both newly Slifer Red students headed in the direction of their dorm after gathering their luggage and found their dorm building by a cliff that oversaw the ocean that cut the island off from the outside world. But, strangely, the place hardly seemed like a dorm at all...

"This isn't a dorm, it's an outhouse with a deck!"

Syrus' observation was the polite way of putting it.

It was more akin to an old apartment building with two floors, at least five rooms on each side of the floors, giving a total of twenty overall. Jaden didn't have any complaints, or at least any that he cared to voice. He leaned against a railing, looking at the ocean near the dorm.

"Trust me when I say it could be a lot worse, Syrus." Jaden stated.

Syrus grumbled in agreement.

They went into their assigned room, both laughing when it just so happened to be the same one. "Alrighty, this here is our room Sy."

As they looked in they saw long, two-seated desk along the left wall, window straight across from the door and a three-person bunk bed along the right wall. And near the door was a little stove. Jaden contrasted the room with the messy apartment he and Jason lived in that he hated with very fiber of his being.

This wasn't nearly as good as that place, but it would work.

"It's pretty small don't you think?" Syrus commented on the small room.

"Hey, you're a small guy. You probably won't notice." Jaden replied, smirking when Syrus frowned up at him. "But anyway," Jaden skipped off to change the subject, noticing that Syrus' glare was more adorable than intimidating. "I like it! This'll be a sweet pad for our first year at the academy!"

"Yeah, kinda weird meeting up at the entrance exams, and now roommates?" Syrus said, changing his glare to a stare of excitement. "Do you think it's fate!? Like, maybe we were meant to be together and meet up to do something amazing?!"

Jaden gave an amused laugh as his response. "I wouldn't say so. Probably coincidence. Life is full of ironies."

"Yeah, and mine are full of the joking ones..." Syrus muttered.

"We need to work on that confidence of yours," Jaden pointed out as went over to the window. Now he had two boys to build up mentally and emotionally. He felt like a construction worker, only dealing with a much heavier load and weight. "But first let's work on some lights!" He pulled back the curtain, letting in the bright sunlight.

"Hey! Those were closed for a reason." A new voice bellowed in the room. Jaden quickly pushed the curtains closed and turned to the source of the voice, coming from the top bunk.

"Sorry." Syrus said.

"Yeah, we didn't see you up there." Jaden sheepishly added.

"Well can you see me now!?" The covers pulled back revealing an angry, heavy-set boy with a face and hair like a koala's. Syrus suddenly screamed in fear at the boy and latched onto Jaden, who blinked. Jason's face was scarier unwrapped. "Will you stop your screaming!? Who are you and what are you doing in my room!?"

"Oh, name's Jaden Yuki!"

"And I'm Syrus."

"We're your new..." As Jaden tried to explain himself, the boy in bed turned his back to the new kids. "...roommates?"

"You're new alright, so lemme tell you how things work," the grouchy boy muttered.

Syrus blinked, "Like when Parent's Visit is?" he asked. Jaden huffed. He'd like to know too, but not for what Syrus was probably asking for. He'd much rather tell his father the week after it already went by... That is if he bothered to pick up the phone for him.

"Duh, like the whole color thing works. That's the most important thing you should worry about here,"

Jaden and Syrus blinked.

"There are three colored dorms here. One named after each of the Egyptian God cards. There's the Obelisk Blue students, the Ra Yellow students, and the Slifer Red Students. Now, the Obelisk Blue students are the highest-ranking students. Most of them get into the school and their rank by really high grades while others get in by connections."

Jaden remembered that Chazz was in a crisis because of that tidbit. Whatever. If you asked him, Chazz had earned his admittance.

"Ra Yellow students are really gifted kids that have a lot of potential..."

Jaden grinned in pride for his younger brother.

"And then there are us, the Red Wonders,"

"The Wonders...," Syrus murmured, "That doesn't sound too bad. Like a group of superheroes or something..."

Ignoring Syrus' comment, the large boy continued, "The Red Wonders as in 'I wonder how rejects like us made it even this far'. A lot of people look down on the Slifers because they're the lowest ranking students on the island...nothing but the bottom of the barrel."

"That's kinda harsh..." Jaden murmured sarcastically. He hadn't been here more than an hour and already he could pick out that there was discrimination going about amongst the students due to the color of their jacket. Might as well just paint them all green to avoid the hassle. Still... Jaden found himself smirking as an idea formed. If Jason were here, he'd start trying to convince Jaden not to do what he's about to do. Luckily for the elder Yuki, Syrus and Koala Man didn't know the clues to the formation of his evil ideas.

The napping boy waved lazily at them, "Oh, by the way, I'm Chumley. Nice to meet you."

Jaden stood still for a few seconds before shrugging and grabbing Syrus' shoulder. "Let's go..."

"Go where!?" He asked frightened.

Jaden smirked, "To spread the name of the Wonders." He ignored Syrus' protests as he ushered him out of the door and into the direction of the Academy building.

Chumley chuckled when he heard Jaden's words, "Good luck with that..."

...

Back with the two Ras, they found themselves standing outside their dorm building. The Ra Yellow dorm building was the size of a small apartment building and looked like a fancy bookstore according to Bastion, Jason content to downloading his reading material as it was easier for him. Translation: He had an easier time avoiding people. It was very clean and true to the name, very yellow with small dark green patches sporadically thrown in every few intervals. Bastion and Jason walked inside and found they were neighbors, much to their amusement. After unlocking Bastion's door with the keys they got in registration, the opened to a fairly sized room with a bed near a window, a desk with a computer and drawers for the clothes with the bathroom near the right side of the window. It even had a small fridge and stove for cooking.

All in all, it was cool.

"I'm surprised we get our own rooms..." Bastion commented as he set his suitcase down on the floor by the door. Jason hovered in the doorway to avoid intruding. "With the number of students here, I guessed we would need to room with others."

Jason hypothesized that maybe people were rooming together and he and Bastion were the lucky ones to get their own rooms.

"It's even more surprising that our rooms are right next to each other." Bastion smirked at that tidbit, feeling even more amused at that it was the mute Yuki that he would be spending more time with. "I'd say it was fate or something of the sort if I wasn't a man of logic." Jason gave a smirk at that. He just thought it was coincidence. Bastion examined the room a little bit more before nodding, "It's a good setup for the beginning of the year. Not that it matters much to me since I plan to be admitted into Obelisk before too long."

Jason blinked in surprise at that revelation. He admired it though. Having a plan was good, and there was nothing wrong with wanting to move up in ranking. He stayed in the doorway as Bastion went through the room, opening the drawers to presumably get a good idea of the size.

"And it's good that I get to start my year here with a good fellow like yourself..."

Jason almost fell from his spot by the doorway. He couldn't see Bastion's face as he was still measuring out the drawers with his fingers, but he wanted to believe that there was a smile somewhere in there. He hadn't heard anything like that since the whole incident with Shane - regrettably - forced him to be wary of people and who to get close to. He wanted to respond accordingly, even having a hand outstretched, but pulled back just as quickly as he put it out.

He scratched at his wrist, turning away and going next door. He would apologize for abruptly leaving later.

He tossed his bag off to the side, laying down on the bed as he tried to ignore the claustrophobic feeling beating within his chest. He swore the walls closed in towards him. He shook his head. He couldn't believe how pathetic he was. Not even a half hour away from Jaden and he was already gonna faint. He thought about retreating back to Bastion, but he hated intruding on someone; even more so when it was someone he saw as a nice guy.

He still had to go though. He stood up and left his room, hastily locking it when he remembered that Bastion would hear or see him in his hysteria. He didn't get two feet, stopping by Bastion's room again.

"You were right..." Another voice suddenly came through. Jason turned around as Bastion stuck his head out the door. Coming their way were three different people. One was a rather short, nervous looking boy with long green hair; the second was a very large, heavy set Ra who was as tall as the ceiling and required to be standing behind the other two people with him to allow them to move; and the third was a black haired guy with a smirk.

"That is the guy who beat Professor Koga..." The black haired guy continued. "He doesn't look as cool up close though." Jason repressed a flinch while Bastion raised an eyebrow.

The big guy lightly nudged the kid's shoulder disapprovingly. Even the shy looking kid had a disappointed look on his face.

"That's not nice, Dimitri..." The shy kid whispered out.

Dimitri realized the rude tone he had used and immediately went to apologizing. "Sorry about that. Sometimes I just talk without thinking..." He pointed to himself, "I'm Dimitri," he pointed to the big guy, "That's Beauregard," he ended off at the short kid, "And that's Brier."

Bastion nodded at the introductions, "I'm Bastion Misawa and my friend here is Jason Yuki. And yes, he is the one who defeated Professor Koga, rather impressively too..." He turned to smirk at Jason, who blushed at the praise, "It's why he's one of the two here that I hope to defeat." Jason turned surprised at that, easily finding himself curling a smirk of his own in response to Bastion's.

"Anyway," Dimitri intervened, "We were hoping to get to know the kid who defeated a teacher a little bit better. While the kid who defeated Crowler is causing up a bigger storm, this one is in our own dorm." Jason didn't think his victory of Professor Koga would cause any kind of ruckus. Especially not when Jaden had a much more impressive showing than he had.

"We, being mostly Dimitri, are curious as to your skills, Jason." Brier elaborated. "We didn't expect to see you so soon, so we don't have our disks on us, but we would still like to see your skills for ourselves up close sometime." Beauregard, staying silent, gave a half-nod in addition to Brier's statement. Dimitri did give a small betrayed stare at Brier for being singled out, but didn't hold it for long.

Jason was fine with Brier's statement. He'd gladly show his skills whenever. He did promise Jaden he would try to make it through without him around all the time. He stepped aside so Bastion could exit and lock his door. He still hovered a little closer to Bastion as the now group of five headed towards the ceremony hall for their welcome dinner after Bastion reminded them.

...

Over at the Obelisk Dorm, sitting in his fancy room with a bed that would've taken up all the space of a single room in the Slifer Dorm, Chazz stared down at the black deck case that he had resting on the white sheets. Ever since his duel with Jaden and what he told him, he found his thoughts going back to his old ace monster more so than he would've liked this early in the year. He could hear the voice of the monster, muffled from being locked in the case, asking when he could be brought back out. Chazz resisted the desire to walk away to spare himself the guilt.

He had his hand extended outward, fingers twitching as his heart begged him to just listen to Jaden's words and take it. He didn't have to go this far to prove himself to a bunch of punks who knew nothing about him and what he was capable of. On top of that, he didn't wanna permanently lose his favorite card with no hope of getting it back, not when it was right there. He extended his reach.

But then his head told him that that was the reason why he should prove them wrong. He could take them all by storm and rub it in their faces that he wasn't even at his best in doing so. He retracted his reach.

Chazz growled, holding his head in his hands. His frustration slowly escalated to where he wanted to fall to his knees and scream. He stormed out of his room without sparing his deck box a second glance.

…

Back with Jaden and Syrus, the two had stopped at the edge of the rooftop of the Main Building. They could see for miles and miles. Jaden had one hand over his face to block off the rays of the sun. He caught glimpse of what he thought was a small town like area on the very far outskirts.

"I'm not just seeing things, right Syrus?" Jaden asked as he pointed out the town.

Syrus followed his line of sight and shook his head. "Nope. Actually..." He reached into his back pocket to pull out the pamphlet that all students were given. "It says that, with the rise of demand for jobs and spots for this number one Duel Academy, and to keep up with our four school branches, they built a small little town that students can go to on the weekends. There's a movie theater, restaurants, laundromats if you don't wanna do your own washing, etc. If your grades are high enough, you can even rent out one of the apartments there for yourself."

"Awesome!" Jaden exclaimed.

"It is, yes!" Syrus agreed with a nod. "Seto Kaiba built it after much demand from not just the staff and students, but even from his younger brother and Yugi Muto himself!"

"I gotta say we picked the right time to enroll. This is gonna be a fun three years I tell you!" Jaden said. "Well, what'd you say we go check that place out this weekend!"

"As if Slifer Slackers like you two can ever hope to get a spot in Kaiba Town!"

Jaden and Syrus turned around to see that two Obelisk Blue students were standing there by the entrance to the roof. Two teenage boys walked up to them, wearing dark blue blazers. They were the same guys hanging around Chazz at the entrance exams.

"What's up?" Jaden gave a wave as Syrus inched closer to Jaden's side.

"Your dreams, apparently!" The one with no glasses exclaimed. "No Slifer Slacker has ever gained access to the Kaiba Town Complexes before!"

"Well I guess we'll be the first ones then." Jaden shrugged. His droopy eyes indicated his absolute joy in having this conversation. He guessed where this was going and didn't want to deal with the headache of it all.

"Jaden, maybe you shouldn't press their buttons..." Syrus advised against his friend's actions.

The blue haired student looked at Jaden for a few moments, "Wait a minute...you're that kid!"

Before Jaden or Syrus could ask them by what he meant, the brown-haired student turned his head, "Hey Chazz! The guy who beat Dr. Crowler is here!" he called out.

Both Slifer students saw Chazz ascend the steps towards the roof. Jaden and Chazz shared a quick nod of the head with one another, although Chazz avoided giving away that what Jaden said was still fresh on his mind, his eyes taking on a tired hue to them since his talk with Jaden. He touched his side where he normally carried his deck case.

"This is Chazz Princeton and he was the number one duelist at Duelist Prep School, so you be sure to pay the proper respect!" the blue haired teen snapped.

His partner nodded, "Yeah, he's gonna be the next King of Games, the best duelist in the world!"

"How've you been, Chazz?" Jaden asked casually, causing Chazz's friends Torimaki and Raizou to fall over in shock and Syrus to widen his eyes at Jaden's tone of voice. "You thought about what I said on the boat?"

"I did..."

"So...?"

"I'm working on it." He explained. Jaden narrowed his eyes, but shrugged. Maybe Chazz just worked at his own pace.

"You guys know each other?" Syrus asked as Torimaki and Raizou were still lying on the floor at Jaden's familiar tone with Chazz.

"We met on the boat coming here," Jaden explained. "We dueled each other. It was a fun game." Jaden neglected to say that he was the victor of that duel. It didn't seem that big of a deal, nor did it matter. "Anyway, what brings you and your friends here?" Jaden asked, turning attention back to them.

"Professor Koga said for these two to find you..." Chazz pointed to his ascending friends, "And for them to 'initiate the first duel of your Duel Academy education'."

"Whatever that means..." Jaden mumbled.

"I said the same."

"Sure, I'm always up for a duel." He shrugged, grabbing at his backpack where he had his duel disk. He saw Chazz start to smirk at him when he saw that it was the Academy-Issued one. "Yes, Chazz, I changed my Duel Disk."

"I didn't say anything…"

"I saw your face. Living with a mute brother has taught me how to read facial expressions. I know exactly what you're thinking," Chazz just extended his smirk. "Anyway," Jaden gave him an annoyed look before turning back to his would-be challengers. "Which of you two is it gonna be?"

"I will!" Torimaki stepped up with his deck inserted into his Duel Disk. "I specifically added a few cards to my deck to take you out when Professor Koga approached us!"

"All in a few hours? Wow, talk about commitment." Jaden laughed.

Both boys activated their Duel Disks as the other three moved off to the side away from the action.

"Duel!"

Jaden: 4000

Torimaki: 4000

…

In the surveillance room, Ichiro sat in front of the monitors to watch for the duel. He approached the first two Obelisks he could find and promised them a passing grade for the first semester if they could find and defeat Yuki. When he saw them going to the roof where Jaden was, he assumed they were gonna ask him where the other one was.

He nearly punched the monitor when he saw them start their duel.

"Those idiots!" He exclaimed. "Not that one! Why would I care about that Yuki brat! He's not the one who made me look like a punk! I thought it would be obvious I wanted the one-eyed sack of shit!"

"Who's in here?" A different voice called out from outside the room. Ichiro composed himself as Crowler entered the room. "Professor? What're you…" his thoughts were halted when he saw the screen. His eyes bulged, "Yuki is gonna duel an Obelisk!?" he crackled with laughter soon after, "Yes! This is perfect! That'll show him to mess with me!"

He took the seat next to Ichiro, looking at the screen excitedly while Ichiro looked annoyed and ready to rip Torimaki's throat out.

…

"I'll start!" Torimaki drew his sixth card. "I start by placing a facedown and summoning Giant Germ in defense mode!"

One set card appeared by his feet while a purple blob with brown fragments of dirt took the spot to the left of it. (ATK: 1000/DEF: 100)

"And that'll end my turn!"

"Okay…" Jaden stared unimpressed, drawing. He examined his hand. "I summon out Elemental Hero Bubbleman in attack mode!" On Jaden's field appeared a man with bulky blue armor with two holsters attached to his glove. (ATK: 800/DEF: 1200) "And since he's the only card on my field, I can draw two more cards from my deck." He did so.

"And then I play Polymerization," Jaden missed the smirk that appeared on Torimaki's face. "Now I fuse the Avian and Burstinatrix in my hand to make the Flame Wingman!"

Swooping down next to the Bubbleman was one of the Fusion monsters that Jaden used in his duel with Crowler. (ATK: 2100/DEF: 1200)

"Running scared?" Jaden taunted with a smirk.

"Nope," Torimaki's cool attitude had Jaden raising an eyebrow in confusion. "Because you fell right for my trap!" His facedown flipped open to show the swirling vortex present on the Polymerization card being sucked into a device. "Anti-Fusion Device destroys one Fusion monster on the field."

Jaden's eyes widened when he saw the device from the card appear and suck his Flame Wingman into it before sinking into the ground. He growled, "Damn…"

"He took out Jaden's Wingman like if it was nothing!" Syrus exclaimed.

"Torimaki specifically altered his deck to be capable of countering the Fusion playstyle of the Elemental Heroes!" Raizou stated with a grin. "That Slifer stands no chance!"

Chazz stayed silent, curious at how Jaden will get out of this.

Jaden looked at his four-card hand. 'Well, that sucked. I don't have anything else to do right now and I left my Bubbleman in attack mode like an idiot.' He chastised himself. "I place two facedowns and end my turn." He concluded with a frown as two set cards appeared by his feet.

"Back to me," Torimaki drew, feeling a lot more confident after taking out Jaden's Wingman with little trouble. "I switch my Giant Germ into attack mode and summon out Pitch-Black Warwolf in attack mode!" Next to the Giant Germ came out a black werewolf wearing armor carrying a sword. (ATK: 1600/DEF: 600) "And now you can't activate any Trap Cards during the Battle Phase!"

Jaden growled.

"Giant Germ, take out his Bubbleman." The Germ expanded as it moved closer to Bubbleman, sucking him up and blowing him up into little fragments.

Jaden: 3800

Torimaki: 4000

"Now Warwolf, attack him directly!"

The wolf charged as it raised its sword, cutting down the middle of Jaden's torso.

Jaden: 2200

Torimaki: 4000

"Jaden just took a massive hit!" Syrus gasped.

…

Back at the surveillance room, Crowler was shaking with joy. "Yes, that's it, Torimaki! Show that Slacker that he was lucky in defeating me and doesn't belong here!"

Ichiro was silent. He was close to leaving as he had no incentive to stay when the one he wanted wasn't even around. Seeing his brother take a beating did little to get his blood moving.

…

Back at the duel, Torimaki held two cards. "I place these facedown to end my turn." He concluded. "I guess it's true – you did get lucky in defeating Dr. Crowler if this is all you got."

Jaden growled, "Spare me the victory speech. I haven't lost yet." He drew his card. "I play Magician's Archive!" A spell showcasing the Dark Magician glancing around a library appeared. "Now I can add any Spell Card I want from my deck to my hand!" He fanned out his deck to see what it was that he wanted. "I pick E-Emergency Call, and then I play it, allowing me to take my Stratos and add him to my hand." He did so.

"I summon out Stratos in attack mode!" A Hero wearing blue armor with fans spinning rapidly on his back as jet turbine wings flew down to Jaden's side. (ATK: 1800/DEF: 300) "Now his special ability activates and I can add one Elemental Hero from my deck to my hand."

"This is the third time this turn he's searching for something," Chazz muttered.

"I pick my Bladedge…"

"Search for anything you want, you still won't win." Torimaki mocked. "Especially when I activate my facedown Success Probability 0%! Now, two of your Fusion Monsters are randomly sent to the graveyard!"

Jaden gasped as he saw his Thunder Giant and his Rampart Blaster get sent to the graveyard. He glared at Torimaki.

"Man, this guy keeps wrecking Jaden's Fusion cards. Pretty soon, Jaden won't have any monsters left to fuse into." Syrus worriedly stated.

"Him beating Crowler was the biggest fluke in the history of this school!" Raizou said.

"I attack your Pitch-Black Warwolf with my Stratos!" He pointed forward. His Stratos propelled forward to send the Wolf packing to the graveyard with a strong kick.

Jaden: 2200

Torimaki: 3800

"Now the coast is clear for me to use my facedown Soul Fusion trap card!" A trap showing the familiar vortex with the letter 'S' in between appeared. "Now I pay 1000 life points to Fusion Summon a monster with the cards in my graveyard!"

A red aura surrounded Jaden as he pocketed his Bubbleman and Burstinatrix.

Jaden: 1200

Torimaki: 3800

Appearing by Jaden's Stratos was a monster with purple and red robotic armor with steam pipes attached to his back. (ATK: 1800/DEF: 1000) "This is the Elemental Steam Healer! Now, attack his Giant Germ!"

Steam Healer held his hand out in the direction of the Germ. A big gust of steam shot out, destroying the blob of disease rather easily.

Jaden: 1200

Torimaki: 3000

"Now Steam Healer's effect activates! Since it destroyed your monster, I gain life points equal to its attack points!"

"But before then, Giant Germ activates its effect, allowing me to deal 500 points of damage and summoning out two more of them from my deck."

Jaden watched as the remains of the blob formed into two matching images of the monster from before. (ATK: 1000/DEF: 100)x2

A purple aura surrounded Jaden shortly before a green one did to heal the damage done to him.

Jaden: 1700

Torimaki: 3000

"I end my turn…"

"Back to me," Torimaki drew, having a hand of three. He smirked at the card he had. "Since you love all my Anti-Fusion Cards, allow me to summon out Fusion Devourer; guess what he does!" Torimaki taunted as a monster with multiple tentacles with white faces on them appeared. (ATK: 1400/DEF: 1200) "Now whenever he battles a Fusion monster, its attack points drop down to 0."

Jaden glared at him.

"I attack your Steam Healer with Fusion Devourer!" Torimaki held his hand out as the many tentacles reached out to drain Steam Healer of all its strength. (ATK: 1800-0) The face in the middle opened its jaw, taking Steam Healer in and swallowing him whole. All those present cringed, even Crowler did. Ichiro was the only stoic one.

Jaden: 300

Torimaki: 3000

"Now, Giant Germ, attack his Stratos!"

"Huh?" Syrus asked, "Why would he do that? Stratos is way stronger than that Germ."

"Because Jaden will take 500 points of damage if it's destroyed, and with only 300 left he won't survive the round." Chazz explained, causing Syrus to gasp and turn to Jaden worriedly. He watched Jaden stare at the facedown that he had resting on his field.

Jaden pressed a button on his disk, "I activate Elemental Recharge to gain 1000 life points for every Elemental Hero that I have on the field. I guess I survive this round," he smirked at Torimaki, who glared at him.

"I'll still have both of my monsters attack your Stratos!"

Stratos held out both hands when the twin Germs came in his direction. He grabbed them, smashed them together, and evaporated them from the field.

Jaden: 300

Torimaki: 1400

He glared again, "You got lucky, Yuki. Next turn I'll end this for sure." He placed one facedown to end his turn.

"We'll see about that," Jaden drew, having three cards.

"I activate my facedown Non-Fusion Area!"

"Now neither of them can Fusion Summon anything!" Syrus gasped. "How's Jaden gonna get out of this?"

"He's not," Raizou commented smugly. "He might as well surrender now and give Torimaki his victory!"

Chazz stayed quiet.

Back with Crowler and Ichiro, the former was shaking in complete and utter delight. "That slacker is just one turn away from losing! He'll be so broken that he'll drop out and I can pretend that he never existed to begin with."

Jaden didn't pay the card any mind. After being rejected of his Fusions the entire duel, nothing that Torimaki played would catch him off guard again. Not that it mattered since he was ending this duel right now.

"I activate the Hero Mask spell card!" A spell showing Avian's mask appeared. "Now I can send an Elemental Hero from my deck to the graveyard to allow one of my monster's to be counted as the monster I discard."

"I don't know what you're trying to make, but it doesn't matter. My Non-Fusion Area stops you from summoning any Fusion monsters. It's over."

Jaden paid no mind, discarding Necroshade. "Now that I sent Necroshade to the graveyard, my Stratos counts as him." A mask that matched Necroshade's face landed in Stratos' hand, who put it on. "And now that he's in my graveyard, I can summon out one Elemental Hero without a sacrifice just once."

"And he's been holding Bladedge since last turn," Chazz reminded.

"Now I summon out Elemental Hero Bladedge in attack mode!" A large bulky hero wearing golden armor with multiple razor-sharp extensions skated down next to his Stratos. (ATK: 2600/DEF: 1800) "Now this duel is mine! Stratos, attack his Fusion Devourer!" The wind hero turned his turbine wings into overdrive as he charged forward to punch the multi-tentacle monster.

Jaden: 300

Torimaki: 1000

"Now, Bladedge, attack him directly!"

"I activate my Fires of Doomsday!" Torimaki's lone facedown appeared to show two little monsters of black flames standing together. "Now I get two tokens."

Jaden and Chazz were the only two that were staring at him in confusion. Two little black fire monsters appeared shielding Torimaki. (ATK: 0/DEF: 0)x2

"That doesn't matter," Jaden shook his head. "Bladedge does piercing damage when he attacks a monster in defense mode!"

Torimaki paled as Bladedge skated over to kick the little token of black fire into ash.

Jaden: 300 (Winner)

Torimaki: 0

"And that's game!" Jaden said. "That was an impressive duel, that final move aside. Hopefully when you lose that smug attitude we can have a rematch. Although I am curious," Jaden walked over to him. "Why did Professor Koga want you to duel me specifically?"

Torimaki growled, "I'm not telling you anything. Just watch your back, Yuki." He warned, pushing on pass Syrus and Chazz to exit off the roof. Raizou followed behind him.

Jaden shrugged, "That was weird…"

"Yeah, no kidding," Syrus agreed. "Congratulations on defeating an Obelisk."

"Thanks, buddy," Jaden grinned. "Well, Chazz," he turned to the other Obelisk, who looked back at him upon being addressed. "How'd you like that?"

"If you would've lost, I'd have jumped off the roof for losing to you." He joked, getting Jaden's forehead to tick. "Good game either way. I honestly expected you to win a lot sooner with Torimaki as your opponent. I guess that being bought into the Blue Dorm for some doesn't necessarily mean you have zero skill." He shrugged.

"It was a tough one, I admit. If I learned anything, I shouldn't rely solely on my Fusions to win a duel." He laughed. Syrus laughed too. Chazz settled for smiling. The three stayed up there for a little bit more before leaving off to their respective dorms for their Welcome Dinners.

Back down at the surveillance room, Crowler was pulling his hair in frustration. "No! How could this happen! Professor, how!?" he turned to see that Ichiro had left already. He blinked, "Professor?" he stood up and looked around the room. He exited to try and find his fellow faculty member.

Unbeknownst to him, someone else was in the room watching the duel. He stepped out of the shadows to show that he was wearing a black leather jacket, a blue undershirt, dark blue jeans, and black combat boots. He had a black headmask on that covered his entire face except his left eye, which was a dark brown. He had a hole in his throat, a black device inside it being visible to the naked eye. He ran a hand through his dark brown hair as he sat down in the chair to stare at the monitor showing Jaden, Syrus, and Chazz walking away.

"I forgot how good Jaden was," the figure muttered in a robotic voice, the sound coming out of the hole in his throat – now identified as a speaker. "I probably should kill him asap, but that's too dangerous to do. First thing's first, I gotta draw out his latent energy for the switch." He sat in the chair, humming. "Now, how did it happen before?" he asked himself. He smirked behind the mask. "Yes… The Spirit Caller incident." He grabbed the phone by the keyboard. "If this goes right, maybe I can make myself known to my other self sooner than expected." He laughed as he dialed a number.

…

At the Obelisk Dorm, Chazz was eating his fancy welcome dinner alone in the corner as everyone else moved around to talk to each other. They even had the girls over from their Blue Dorm since they were all the same rank. He didn't pay any mind to anyone here. He kept his eyes moving around to try and see if he recognized anyone here from any stories that he heard. He needed a good challenge to make himself known as a tough duelist.

He did spot Zane, but wasn't jumping right to the top of the food chain yet. No one could scrape his life points the entire time he's been here and he was sure that he wasn't ready for that yet, especially when he was nerfing himself on purpose to stand out. Maybe later when he had proved himself.

He did spot Alexis Rhodes and Asami Elric, the top two female students of his year from the entrance exams talking to a few other girls. Maybe he could try it out with them for a challenge.

He walked over to them, "Excuse me,"

"Not interested," Alexis immediately shot him down with an annoyed look. "I'm not looking for any romance."

"Neither am I…" Asami added.

"Huh?" Chazz looked so hopelessly confused. "I just wanted to ask if I could duel you two sometime. I heard you two were good and wanted to see for myself." He looked around to maybe see if there was someone else near him that they were referring to.

Alexis and Asami's eyes widened, "Oh, I'm so sorry!" Alexis apologized. "It's just that, we've been hearing dating requests since the moment we stepped onto this island and we're getting sick of it." Asami nodded in agreement.

"Oh," Chazz nodded in understanding. "I'd be mad too." Not that he didn't think they weren't good looking – he thought they were – he just didn't care about romance.

"To answer your question, yes, I'd like to duel you soon. I've been hearing all these rumors about you, Chazz." Asami said.

Chazz groaned, "What rumors?" he already knew, but still felt inclined to ask. He never knew, but maybe it would be something else, although it never was.

"That you're here because your family bought your way in," Alexis explained. Chazz sunk his head. He was close to going on the school loud speaker and yelling at everyone to stop accusing him of being a cheat. "The curiosity of it all is interesting."

"Well the answer is no, I can tell you." Chazz muttered. "But, you will duel, right?"

"Not now," Asami giggled. "Now it's time to relax."

Chazz laughed, "Of course!" The three laughed together, deciding to hang out for the rest of the party together.

…

At the Ra Dorm, Jason was sitting with Bastion and his other Ra friends at a table in the middle of the cafeteria. They were in the middle of the cafeteria with their other Ras sitting patiently waiting for their headmaster to begin their meal.

"So, you use Dark World because you find the monsters cool?" Brier asked from his spot to Jason's left. Jason nodded, shrugging his shoulders modestly. "I guess I can see why. I mean, I use Goblins because I find their design cool." Beauregard, having gotten looks at Brier's deck, nodded in agreement.

"I might try them out for myself," Dimitri mumbled from across Jason, rubbing a finger under his chin. "They were able to help you beat one of our teachers. Or, maybe I'll try to use Heroes since your brother used them to beat the head of Obelisk, which is a little bit more of an impressive feat, no offense." Jason shrugged again, not feeling bad about Dimitri's comment. He couldn't be hurt at the truth.

Bastion laughed, "They're both impressive achievements. Makes it hard for me to decide which one I'm gonna duel and defeat first." He shared a friendly smirk with Jason. Brier, Beauregard, and Dimitri looked at them staring at each other, silently trying to make guesses as to who would win between the number one applicant and one of the two Yukis that had defeated a teacher. It would definitely be an interesting Duel.

Rising from his spot at the end of the table where Jason and they were sitting was a man with a moustache with a long yellow trench coat like what Crowler wore.

"Hello, my Ra Yellows," he spoke with a Spanish accent. "My name is Professor Sartyr and I'll be your headmaster for your stay in this dorm." The Ras clapped. "Thank you," he laughed, "Now, before we begin our meal, I'd like to say that I'm happy to know that one of our new brethren defeated a teacher." Jason shrunk in his seat at being indirectly addressed. Bastion smirked at his mannerism while Brier looked sympathetic to his acts.

"This makes me happy because being the middle dorm makes it hard for us to stand out. Let's make it known to the island that the Ra Yellows can stand out against the Slifers and the Obelisks."

The Ras cheered.

"Let's eat!"

…

Over at the Slifer Dorm…

"This is our big fancy welcome dinner?" One Slifer student said to no one in particular.

Jaden and Syrus had made it back to the dorm just before the dinner started and saw what they rushed for. A small dish of rice, sardines, and chopsticks with some sauces. Syrus face-planted when he saw how little they were being given. Not the big welcome that he was expecting to have, although they shoulda seen something like this coming with the state of the dorm. Jaden was too busy staring at the food with hunger, the typical Yuki hunger and eating talents about to be revealed to the entire Slifer Dorm.

"Forget the dinner, look at our headmaster! It's a cat!" Another said pointing at a brown and black striped cat that was taking a snooze at the Slifer dining hall table. That thought was blown out of everyone's head when a tall and skinny looking man with a dark hair and a pair of glasses came out from the kitchen area. He seemed like a nice enough guy. At least he didn't wear makeup like that buffoon Crowler did, Jaden thought before he turned back to his food with his hungry grin.

"Hello children. I'm Professor Banner," he greeted them all in a light German accent. "Before we eat, I would like everyone to say some…" Before he could continue he was interrupted by Jaden.

"This is great!" He had already begun to stuff his face with rice. Everyone was staring at the Hero Duelist.

"Jay, I think he wanted us to say something about ourselves." Syrus said, trying to stop his friend from eating. Jaden seemed to be ignoring him, going over to his sardines.

"Okay, how 'bout this, I'm starving!" Jaden said with his mouth full.

"He's walking over here." Syrus warned but Jaden was still stuffing his face full of food. "I mean it, he's…" Syrus didn't finish since Professor Banner now stood over the two of them.

"Well, since some of us can't wait…" He said almost with a small smile. "Let's just eat!"

"Yeah!" Jaden cheered.

End of Chapter 3 of Yu-Gi-Oh: Diffusion

After a long break, here's the next chapter. The reason for the delay being because I changed the story for this a lot. I mean A LOT. I mean, I had to switch Jason's deck into a Dark World deck to have future plot elements make sense. Maybe I'll reveal all of the old ideas one day.

Hopefully you enjoyed the duel between Jaden and Torimaki. I was actually surprised I allowed Torimaki to have that big of an edge on Jaden. And his mishap at the end of the duel will be a factor in the upcoming story arc, which I've gracefully nicknamed – The Dormitory Civil War Arc.

And who is this mysterious figure that seems to know Jaden and his latent power? Who is Ghost? Oh boy, I can't wait for their identities to be revealed.

Stay tuned for the next chapter, which will hopefully be up at a considerable pace. Like mentioned before, personal problems and writing my own original Adventure/Crime story has taken up all of my time.

Next Time: Rise of the Ra Rejects! Banished Dark World!


End file.
